Formatting with TileFetcher

The starfish package contains convenient functions for writing SpaceTx formatted experiments with the starfish.experiment.builder module. For data that isn’t or can’t be structured as “structured data” as defined in Format Structured Data, you can use write_experiment_json(). This method is generally only recommended for users familiar with Python, but we provide many examples that may allow anyone to learn and use this workflow for their own data. It requires subclassing the base classes TileFetcher and FetchedTile to serve as the interface for fetching the appropriate 2D image tile. FetchedTile can be extended to read any image format that returns a numpy array.

This tutorial will demonstrate how to define the necessary subclasses and run write_experiment_json() on example 2D tiff data.

Create some synthetic data to form into a trivial experiment.

The data used here is the same “structured data” as from the Format Structured Data tutorial. It consists of 2 image sets (‘primary’ and ‘nuclei’), each with 2 FOVs, 2 rounds, 1 channel, and 3 z-planes.

The physical coordinates are hardcoded here for simplicity, but typically they will be read from a file. Of course, your filename schema and file organization does not have to match what is shown here. By writing your own TileFetcher subclass you can use any input format you want.

import os
import numpy as np
import skimage.io
import tempfile

# columns: r, ch, zplane
fovs = [
    [
        (0, 0, 0),
        (0, 0, 1),
        (0, 0, 2),
        (1, 0, 0),
        (1, 0, 1),
        (1, 0, 2),
    ],
    [
        (0, 0, 0),
        (0, 0, 1),
        (0, 0, 2),
        (1, 0, 0),
        (1, 0, 1),
        (1, 0, 2),
    ],
]

data = np.zeros((10, 10), dtype=np.float32)

# create example image tiles that adhere to the structured data schema
inputdir = tempfile.TemporaryDirectory()
primary_dir = os.path.join(inputdir.name, "primary_dir")
nuclei_dir = os.path.join(inputdir.name, "nuclei_dir")
os.mkdir(primary_dir)
os.mkdir(nuclei_dir)

for fov_id, fov in enumerate(fovs):
    for round_label, ch_label, zplane_label in fov:
        primary_path = os.path.join(
            primary_dir, f"primary-f{fov_id}-r{round_label}-c{ch_label}-z{zplane_label}.tiff")
        nuclei_path = os.path.join(
            nuclei_dir, f"nuclei-f{fov_id}-r{round_label}-c{ch_label}-z{zplane_label}.tiff")
        skimage.io.imsave(primary_path, data)
        skimage.io.imsave(nuclei_path, data)

Out:

/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/primary_dir/primary-f0-r0-c0-z0.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/nuclei_dir/nuclei-f0-r0-c0-z0.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/primary_dir/primary-f0-r0-c0-z1.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/nuclei_dir/nuclei-f0-r0-c0-z1.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/primary_dir/primary-f0-r0-c0-z2.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/nuclei_dir/nuclei-f0-r0-c0-z2.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/primary_dir/primary-f0-r1-c0-z0.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/nuclei_dir/nuclei-f0-r1-c0-z0.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/primary_dir/primary-f0-r1-c0-z1.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/nuclei_dir/nuclei-f0-r1-c0-z1.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/primary_dir/primary-f0-r1-c0-z2.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/nuclei_dir/nuclei-f0-r1-c0-z2.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/primary_dir/primary-f1-r0-c0-z0.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/nuclei_dir/nuclei-f1-r0-c0-z0.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/primary_dir/primary-f1-r0-c0-z1.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/nuclei_dir/nuclei-f1-r0-c0-z1.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/primary_dir/primary-f1-r0-c0-z2.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/nuclei_dir/nuclei-f1-r0-c0-z2.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/primary_dir/primary-f1-r1-c0-z0.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/nuclei_dir/nuclei-f1-r1-c0-z0.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/primary_dir/primary-f1-r1-c0-z1.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/nuclei_dir/nuclei-f1-r1-c0-z1.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/primary_dir/primary-f1-r1-c0-z2.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)
/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/spacetx-starfish/envs/latest/lib/python3.6/site-packages/skimage/io/_io.py:141: UserWarning: /tmp/tmpv_6wkn8u/nuclei_dir/nuclei-f1-r1-c0-z2.tiff is a low contrast image
  warn('%s is a low contrast image' % fname)

Directory contents

for dir in [primary_dir, nuclei_dir]:
    print("\n")
    for file in sorted(os.listdir(dir)):
        print(file)

Out:

primary-f0-r0-c0-z0.tiff
primary-f0-r0-c0-z1.tiff
primary-f0-r0-c0-z2.tiff
primary-f0-r1-c0-z0.tiff
primary-f0-r1-c0-z1.tiff
primary-f0-r1-c0-z2.tiff
primary-f1-r0-c0-z0.tiff
primary-f1-r0-c0-z1.tiff
primary-f1-r0-c0-z2.tiff
primary-f1-r1-c0-z0.tiff
primary-f1-r1-c0-z1.tiff
primary-f1-r1-c0-z2.tiff


nuclei-f0-r0-c0-z0.tiff
nuclei-f0-r0-c0-z1.tiff
nuclei-f0-r0-c0-z2.tiff
nuclei-f0-r1-c0-z0.tiff
nuclei-f0-r1-c0-z1.tiff
nuclei-f0-r1-c0-z2.tiff
nuclei-f1-r0-c0-z0.tiff
nuclei-f1-r0-c0-z1.tiff
nuclei-f1-r0-c0-z2.tiff
nuclei-f1-r1-c0-z0.tiff
nuclei-f1-r1-c0-z1.tiff
nuclei-f1-r1-c0-z2.tiff

Define FetchedTile subclass

The FetchedTile subclass defines the function you need for reading your images and the other properties required by write_experiment_json() to construct slicedimage.Tiles.

You can use any function to read images that returns a numpy array. We recommend using imageio.volread for 3D images and skimage.io.imread for 2D images. For 3D images, it is especially useful to use a cached function to avoid reopening the file to fetch each z-plane.

import functools
from imageio import volread
from skimage.io import imread
from typing import Mapping, Union

from starfish.experiment.builder import FetchedTile
from starfish.types import Axes, Coordinates


# a 2D read function
def read_fn(file_path) -> np.ndarray:
    return imread(file_path)


# example of a cached 3D read function
# not used in this example
@functools.lru_cache(maxsize=1)
def cached_3D_read_fn(file_path) -> np.ndarray:
    return volread(file_path)


# subclass FetchedTile
class RNATile(FetchedTile):

    def __init__(
            self,
            file_path: str,
            coordinates: Mapping[Union[str, Coordinates], tuple]
    ) -> None:
        """Parser for a tile.

        Parameters
        ----------
        file_path : str
            location of the tiff
        coordinates : Mapping[Union[str, Coordinates], tuple]
            the coordinates for the selected tile, extracted from the metadata
        """
        self.file_path = file_path

        # coordinates must match shape
        self._coordinates = coordinates

    @property
    def shape(self) -> Mapping[Axes, int]:
        return {Axes.Y: 10, Axes.X: 10}  # hard coded for this example

    @property
    def coordinates(self):
        return self._coordinates

    def tile_data(self) -> np.ndarray:
        return read_fn(self.file_path)

Define TileFetcher subclass

The TileFetcher subclass acts as the interface for write_experiment_json() to know where to get files to construct slicedimage.Tiles.

If you are not using structured data, you will need to extend TileFetcher to reflect your own file naming and organization schema.

# physical coordinates for two FOVs
coordinates_of_fovs = [
    {
        Coordinates.X: (0.0, 0.1),
        Coordinates.Y: (0.0, 0.1),
        Coordinates.Z: (0.005, 0.010),
    },
    {
        Coordinates.X: (0.1, 0.2),
        Coordinates.Y: (0.0, 0.1),
        Coordinates.Z: (0.005, 0.010),
    },
]

from starfish.experiment.builder import TileFetcher

class PrimaryTileFetcher(TileFetcher):

    def __init__(self, input_dir: str) -> None:
        self.input_dir = os.path.join(input_dir)
        self.num_z = 1

    def get_tile(
            self, fov_id: int, round_label: int, ch_label: int, zplane_label: int) -> FetchedTile:
        filename = f"primary-f{fov_id}-r{round_label}-c{ch_label}-z{zplane_label}.tiff"
        return RNATile(os.path.join(self.input_dir, filename), coordinates_of_fovs[fov_id])

class NucleiTileFetcher(TileFetcher):

    def __init__(self, input_dir: str) -> None:
        self.input_dir = os.path.join(input_dir)
        self.num_z = 1

    def get_tile(
            self, fov_id: int, round_label: int, ch_label: int, zplane_label: int) -> FetchedTile:
        filename = f"nuclei-f{fov_id}-r{round_label}-c{ch_label}-z{zplane_label}.tiff"
        return RNATile(os.path.join(self.input_dir, filename), coordinates_of_fovs[fov_id])

Run write_experiment_json()

The SpaceTx formatted data will all be stored in the output directory you choose.

from slicedimage import ImageFormat
from starfish.experiment.builder import write_experiment_json

outputdir = tempfile.TemporaryDirectory()

primary_tile_fetcher = PrimaryTileFetcher(primary_dir)
nuclei_tile_fetcher = NucleiTileFetcher(nuclei_dir)

# This is hardcoded for this example data set
primary_image_dimensions: Mapping[Union[str, Axes], int] = {
    Axes.ROUND: 2,
    Axes.CH: 1,
    Axes.ZPLANE: 3,
}
aux_images_dimensions: Mapping[str, Mapping[Union[str, Axes], int]] = {
    "nuclei": {
        Axes.ROUND: 2,
        Axes.CH: 1,
        Axes.ZPLANE: 3,
    },
}

write_experiment_json(
    path=outputdir.name,
    fov_count=2,
    tile_format=ImageFormat.TIFF,
    primary_image_dimensions=primary_image_dimensions,
    aux_name_to_dimensions=aux_images_dimensions,
    primary_tile_fetcher=primary_tile_fetcher,
    aux_tile_fetcher={"nuclei": nuclei_tile_fetcher},
    dimension_order=(Axes.ROUND, Axes.CH, Axes.ZPLANE)
)

Don’t forget to replace the fake codebook.json

There are no starfish tools for creating a codebook. You can write the JSON manually or write a script to do it for you. Be sure the format matches the examples in SpaceTx Format.

# this is the placeholder codebook.json
with open(os.path.join(outputdir.name, "codebook.json"), "r") as fh:
    print(fh.read())

Out:

{"version": "0.0.0", "mappings": [{"codeword": [{"r": 0, "c": 0, "v": 1.0}], "target": "PLEASE_REPLACE_ME"}]}

Load up the experiment

from starfish import Experiment

exp = Experiment.from_json(os.path.join(outputdir.name, "experiment.json"))
print(exp.fovs())

Out:

[<starfish.FieldOfView>
  Primary Image: <slicedimage.TileSet (z: 3, c: 1, r: 2, x: 10, y: 10)>
  Auxiliary Images:
    nuclei: <slicedimage.TileSet (z: 3, c: 1, r: 2, x: 10, y: 10)>, <starfish.FieldOfView>
  Primary Image: <slicedimage.TileSet (z: 3, c: 1, r: 2, x: 10, y: 10)>
  Auxiliary Images:
    nuclei: <slicedimage.TileSet (z: 3, c: 1, r: 2, x: 10, y: 10)>]

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