Robust parametric stabilization of moving cells with intensity correction in light microscopy image sequences

Automatically stabilizing moving living cells in fluorescence microscopy image sequences is required to attain and analyze the actual displacements of subcellular particles. We have designed a stabilization method which can handle within a single parametric framework, the estimation of the global motion and of the temporal intensity variation (e.g., due to photobleaching effect) that we have to compensate for. We have introduced extended parametric motion-intensity constraints and exploited a robust multiresolution estimation scheme insensitive to local independent motions (outliers). We demonstrate the efficiency and the accuracy of our stabilization method on three challenging cellular events: cell development, endosome displacements, protein recruitment.