Image-based representation and modeling of spatiotemporal cell dynamics

Successful completion of dynamic cellular processes ranging from intracellular transport to embryonic development depends critically on precise spatial and temporal coordination of the molecules and cells involved. Understanding spatiotemporal behaviors of these molecules and cells is therefore essential to understanding mechanisms of their associated cellular processes. Over the past two decades, a wide variety of image feature tracking techniques have been developed for recovery of spatiotemporal trajectories of molecules and cells from their images. From these trajectories, simple descriptors such as velocities or diffusion coefficients are often calculated for behavior characterization. However, for complex cellular processes, these descriptors cannot fully characterize or represent spatiotemporal behaviors of the molecules and cells involved. Instead, comprehensive computational representations and models become essential. This short paper introduces a special session that we organize to invite investigators to present their work related to this important emerging topic in biological imaging. We illustrate the necessity for computational representation and modeling of spatiotemporal cell dynamics using a specific example and review briefly some of the key technical challenges to be addressed. We conclude with an overview of the invited presentations.

1. BACKGROUND

The inner environment of the cell is highly dynamic and heterogeneous yet exquisitely organized. Within this environment, successful completion of cellular processes depends on the right molecules to be at the right place at the right time to perform their functions. In a similar fashion but at the scale of multicellular organisms, successful completion of cellular processes ranging from embryonic development to tissue regeneration depends on precise spatiotemporal coordination of activities of the cells involved [1]. Therefore, to understand mechanisms of these cellular processes, it is essential to understand spatiotemporal behaviors of the molecules and cells.