Methods to analyze cell migration data: fundamentals and practical guidelines.

ABSTRACT: Cell migration assays provide invaluable insights into fundamental biological processes. In a companion Review, we describe commercial and custom in vitro and in vivo assays to measure cell migration and provide guidelines on how to select the most appropriate assay for a given biological question. Here, we describe the fundamental principles of how to compute-from the raw data generated by these assays-quantitative cell migration parameters that help determine the biophysical nature of the cell migration, such as cell speed, mean-squared displacement, diffusivity, persistence, speed and anisotropy, and how to quantify cell heterogeneity, with practical guidance. We also describe new imaging and computational technologies, including AI-based methods, which have helped establish fast, robus

SUBMITTER: Wu PH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12920016 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature