Molecular motors are protein complexes that convert chemical energy into mechanical forces to perform a variety of tasks within a cell. Understanding the biological mechanisms of such motors requires detailed observation of their dynamics. However, the imaging of moving motors can be challenging given that a Kinesin molecular motor head is approximately 5 nm in radius and that a fluorophore marker to track the motor can be one to two orders of magnitude larger. In addition, the number of motors within the viewing range of a microscope can vary over time which complicates the design of automated tracking algorithms. In this talk, an overview of these problems will be presented along with strategies to localize Qdot markers attached to Kinesin motors along with model selection and diagnostic techniques.
Return to Biostatistics Working Group