Bigpicture community meets in Berlin to advance AI in pathology

Impressions of a successful meeting

Bigpicture is building one of the world’s largest repositories of digital pathology images and associated data. By making these datasets available for research and innovation, the project aims to enable new insights into disease, improve drug development, and ultimately support better patient care.

The annual meeting offered an opportunity for the community behind this ambitious initiative to come together, reflect on progress, and shape the next steps of the project.

Turning data into discovery

Digital pathology is rapidly transforming biomedical research. Advances in scanning technology and artificial intelligence now allow researchers to analyse tissue samples at a scale that was impossible just a few years ago.

Within Bigpicture, this potential is being translated into a unique shared resource: a large, diverse repository of pathology data contributed by partners across academia, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and technology organisations.

During the Berlin meeting, consortium members explored how this growing infrastructure can support a wide range of applications—from helping researchers find relevant datasets more efficiently to enabling the development of new AI models trained on high-quality pathology data.

One example discussed was the possibility of using large collections of digital pathology images to build virtual control groups for non-clinical safety testing. Such approaches could help researchers better understand drug effects while potentially reducing reliance on animal testing.

A collaboration across disciplines

One of the defining features of Bigpicture is the diversity of expertise involved. The consortium brings together pathologists, data scientists, software developers, pharmaceutical researchers, regulators, and legal and ethical experts.

This diversity reflects the complexity of building a large-scale digital research infrastructure. Making pathology data usable for AI requires not only technical solutions, but also careful consideration of data governance, standards, and ethical frameworks.

The Berlin meeting provided an opportunity for these different perspectives to converge, helping to ensure that the project continues to evolve in a way that serves the needs of the wider biomedical community.

Building a shared resource for the future

Beyond the technical developments, the discussions in Berlin highlighted a broader ambition: to create a sustainable resource that will benefit researchers long after the project itself concludes.

By establishing standards, tools, and governance models for large-scale pathology data sharing, Bigpicture is helping to lay the foundations for a new generation of data-driven biomedical research.

The consortium also confirmed its commitment to continuing the work. During the meeting, partners unanimously supported a proposal to request an extension of the project, allowing additional time to further develop the platform and maximise its impact.

Looking ahead

As digital technologies continue to reshape medicine, initiatives like Bigpicture demonstrate the power of collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and sectors.

By combining expertise from academia, healthcare, industry, and technology, the consortium is working to unlock the full potential of pathology data. The progress shared in Berlin shows how this collective effort is steadily moving the field closer to a future where AI-enabled pathology can accelerate scientific discovery and support better healthcare worldwide.