I helped scientist Paul Villoutreix create a web interface for his work in visualizing embryogenesis. He had these amazing datasets of imagery, in three dimensions and time, and needed a way to interact with them on the web. With support from the Mozilla Science Lab, we developed a method to view and navigate these complex datasets natively in a web browser.

description from paulvill.github.io

The Embryo Digital Atlas is an open-source, web-based platform to visualize complex experimental datasets of embryogenesis in an easy and beautiful way. Embryogenesis is the process by which a single fertilized egg is transformed into a multicellular organism. It is studied in various model organisms, from the sea urchin, to the fruit fly, to the zebrafish, to the chicken, to the mouse, to the human! Many mechanisms are conserved across species, this is why it is useful to study and compare these processes in the various models. Images have an important role in these studies, mainly because this is such a complex and intricate process that researchers first need to be able to describe it comprehensively.

Embryogenesis is at the heart of the public debate about stem cell research and genome editing. In addition, it is a source of inspiration for engineers, designers and architects interested in how a complex structure can emerge from simple units. The aim of The Embryo Digital Atlas is to make public datasets of embryogenesis easily accessible for an audience ranging from curious citizens, to students, to professional researchers.