title: A multiple hypothesis based method for particle tracking and its extension for cell segmentation.
abstract: In biological studies, it is often required to track thousands of small particles in microscopic images to analyze underlying mechanisms of cellular and subcellular processes which may lead to better understanding of some disease processes. In this paper, we present an automatic particle tracking method and apply it for analyzing an essential subcellular process, namely clathrin mediated endocytosis using total internal reflection microscopy. Particles are detected by using image filters and subsequently Gaussian mixture models are fitted to achieve sub-pixel resolution. A multiple hypothesis based framework is designed to solve data association problems and handle splitting/merging events. The tracking method is demonstrated on synthetic data under different scenarios and applied to real data. We also show that, by equipping with a cell detection module, the method can be extended straightforwardly for segmenting cell images taken by two-photon excitation microscopy.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Hongying
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Panteleimon
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rompolas
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Greco
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Camilli
authors.forename: James S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Duncan
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D058948:Cell Tracking / Q000379:methods*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D036641:Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton / Q000379:methods*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013382:Subtraction Technique