Multimodal bioimaging across disciplines and scales: challenges, opportunities and breaking down barriers

Abstract

Multimodal bioimaging is a broad term used to describe experimental workflows that employ two or more different imaging modalities. Such approaches have been in use across life science domains for several years but these remain relatively limited in scope, in part due to the complexity of undertaking these types of analysis. Expanding these workflows to encompass diverse, emerging technology holds potential to revolutionize our understanding of spatial biology. In this perspective we reflect on the instrument and workflows in current use, emerging areas to consider and our experience of the barriers to broader adoption and progress. We propose several enabling solutions across the different challenge areas, emerging opportunities for consideration and highlight some of the key community activities to help move the field forward.