High Resolution Tracking of Cell Membrane Dynamics in Moving Cells: an Electrifying Approach

R.A. Tyson¹, D.B.A. Epstein², K.I. Anderson³ and T. Bretschneider^1*

¹ University of Warwick, Warwick Systems Biology Centre, Coventry, UK
² University of Warwick, Warwick Mathematics Institute, Coventry, UK
³ Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow, UK

^* Corresponding author. E-mail: T.Bretschneider@warwick.ac.uk

Abstract

Cell motility is an integral part of a diverse set of biological processes. The quest for mathematical models of cell motility has prompted the development of automated approaches for gathering quantitative data on cell morphology, and the distribution of molecular players involved in cell motility. Here we review recent approaches for quantifying cell motility, including automated cell segmentation and tracking. Secondly, we present our own novel method for tracking cell boundaries of moving cells, the Electrostatic Contour Migration Method (ECMM), as an alternative to the generally accepted level set method (LSM). ECMM smoothly tracks regions of the cell boundary over time to compute local membrane displacements using the simple underlying concept of electrostatics. It offers substantial speed increases and reduced computational overheads in comparison to the LSM. We conclude with general considerations regarding boundary tracking in the context of mathematical modelling.