Taking Aim at Moving Targets in Computational Cell Migration (original) (raw)

2016, Trends in Cell Biology

Cell migration is central to the development and maintenance of multicellular organisms. Fundamental understanding of cell migration can, for example, direct novel therapeutic strategies to control invasive tumor cells. However, the study of cell migration yields an overabundance of experimental data that require demanding processing and analysis for results extraction. Computational methods and tools have therefore become essential in the quantification and modeling of cell migration data. We review computational approaches for the key tasks in the quantification of in vitro cell migration: image pre-processing, motion estimation and feature extraction. Moreover, we summarize the current state-of-the-art for in silico modeling of cell migration. Finally, we provide a list of available software tools for cell migration to assist researchers in choosing the most appropriate solution for their needs. Computational Cell Migration in a Nutshell Cell migration plays a fundamental role in physiological phenomena including neural development, wound healing, and immune function, as well as in disorders such as neurological diseases, fibrosis, and cancer metastasis [1-8]. Investigation of cell migration is therefore essential for successful intervention in physiological and pathological phenomena [9-12]. A major driver in the advance of cell migration research has been the evolution of instrumentation (microscopes and cameras) and the corresponding development of experimental tools and biological models. Indeed, 2D in vitro assays [13,14] have recently given way to more sophisticated two-and-a-half-dimensional (2.5D) and 3D approaches [15,16] which more faithfully represent the tissue environment. Because in vivo experiments are difficult and costly, in vitro and ex vivo setups are widely used, especially in drug compound and gene screening [17,18]. This review therefore primarily focuses on the quantification of cell migration in in vitro setups, while we refer the reader to specific literature on in vivo work [19-23].