Comparing different ways of tracking single particles in real time using a microscope.

What is it about?

Real-time feedback-driven single-particle tracking (RT-FD-SPT) is a technique that can follow tiny particles as they move around, e.g. inside of a cell. There are many different methods for RT-FD-SPT, and in this paper, we compare them by using calculations and simulations, which is more objective than comparing experimental results.

Featured Image

Photo by Yassine Khalfalli on Unsplash

Photo by Yassine Khalfalli on Unsplash

Why is it important?

RT-FD-SPT is a state-of-the-art technique, and is still not widely used. One of the reasons for it being challenging for newcomers to get into, is that it is not clear from the existing literature which methods are best for which applications. We start to address this shortcoming in this paper, by introducing an objective theoretical framework for comparing different methods.