Quantification of cell shape, intracellular flows and transport based on DIC object detection and tracking.

Computational image analysis combined with label-free imaging has helped maintain its relevance for cell biology, despite the rapid technical improvements in fluorescence microscopy with the molecular specificity of tags. Here, we discuss some computational tools developed in our lab and their application to quantify cell shape, intracellular organelle movement and bead transport in vitro, using differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy data as inputs. The focus of these methods is image filtering to enhance image gradients, and combining them with segmentation and single particle tracking (SPT).

Allometry ofsurface area with volume: effect of size variability, filamentation and division dynamics.

The cell surface area (SA) increase with volume (V) is determined by growth and regulation of size and shape. Most studies of the rod-shaped model bacteriumhave focussed on the phenomenology or molecular mechanisms governing such scaling. Here, we proceed to examine the role of population statistics and cell division dynamics in such scaling by a combination of microscopy, image analysis and statistical simulations.