title: User-friendly tools for quantifying the dynamics of cellular morphology and intracellular protein clusters.
abstract: Understanding the heterogeneous dynamics of cellular processes requires not only tools to visualize molecular behavior but also versatile approaches to extract and analyze the information contained in live-cell movies of many cells. Automated identification and tracking of cellular features enable thorough and consistent comparative analyses in a high-throughput manner. Here, we present tools for two challenging problems in computational image analysis: (1) classification of motion for cells with complex shapes and dynamics and (2) segmentation of clustered cells and quantification of intracellular protein distributions based on a single fluorescence channel. We describe these methods and user-friendly software(1) (MATLAB applications with graphical user interfaces) so these tools can be readily applied without an extensive knowledge of computational techniques.
authors: Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
authors: Denis
authors: D
authors: Tsygankov
authors: Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
authors: Pei-Hsuan
authors: PH
authors: Chu
authors: Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors: Hsin
authors: H
authors: Chen
authors: Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
authors: Timothy C
authors: TC
authors: Elston
authors: Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; Lineberger Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
authors: Klaus M
authors: KM
authors: Hahn
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement; D048430:Cell Shape; D058948:Cell Tracking; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D046912:Multiprotein Complexes / Q000378:metabolism; D021381:Protein Transport; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000378:metabolism; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D059010:Single-Cell Analysis / Q000379:methods; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D046912:Multiprotein Complexes; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins
keywords: Cell segmentation; Cell tracking; Image quantification; Motion classification; User interface