Tracking in molecular bioimaging

This paper aims to simulate the application of more advanced computer vision techniques to tracking in biological molecular imaging by surveying the literature and sketching the current state of affairs in the field for a signal and image processing audience. After describing the basic principles of visualizing molecular dynamics in living cells and giving some examples of biological molecular dynamics studies, the paper summarizes the problems and limitations intrinsic to imaging at this scale. The paper then discusses the main ingredients of the commonly used tracking paradigm and subsequently reconsider its competence by comparing it to certain aspects of visual motion perception in human beings, keeping in mind the complexity and variability of biological image data. Finally, it summarizes the main points of attention for future research and the challenges that lie ahead.