Perspective: An outlook on fluorescence tracking

Abstract

Tracking single fluorescent molecules has offered resolution into dynamic molecular processes at the single-molecule level. This perspective traces the evolution of single-molecule tracking, highlighting key developments across various methodological branches within fluorescence microscopy. We compare the strengths and limitations of each approach, ranging from conventional widefield offline tracking to real-time confocal tracking. In the final section, we explore emerging efforts to advance physics-inspired tracking techniques, a possibility for parallelization and artificial intelligence, and discuss challenges and opportunities they present toward achieving higher spatiotemporal resolution and greater computational and data efficiency in next-generation single-molecule studies.

References in corpus (4)

• Nanometer resolution imaging and tracking of fluorescent molecules with minimal photon fluxes
• MultiBUGS: A parallel implementation of the BUGS modelling framework for faster Bayesian inference
• MINFLUX -- molecular resolution with minimal photons
• Real-Time Feedback-Driven Single-Particle Tracking: A Survey and Perspective