Our manuscript was just published: R. M. Baker, M. E. Brasch, M. L. Manning, J. H. Henderson, “Automated, contour- based tracking and analysis of cell behavior over long timescales in environments of varying complexity and cell density,” in press J. Roy. Soc. Interface, doi: 10.1098/​rsif.2014.0386 (2014). 

A brief synopsis: To understand how cells and tissues work—and help heal injured tissues or treat diseases such as cancer—researchers need to track cell motion. As researchers study larger numbers of cells for longer times in increasingly complex environments, it has it has become difficult to track individual cells and characterize their properties. Here a team from Syracuse University presents a new, automated approach that accurately tracks cells in complex benchtop experiments. It also identifies subtle differences in cell motion that could be important for disease progression or biomaterials design, enabling a new generation of experiments across many research fields.