Methods and related aspects for molecular tracking and analysis

A system for determining molecular binding kinetics on particles, comprising:

• a sample container receiving area configured to receive a sample container that comprises a particle-bound biomolecule-ligand composition comprising a plurality of particle-bound biomolecules and a plurality of ligands that binds, or is capable of binding, to biomolecules of the plurality of particle-bound biomolecules to produce a particle-bound biomolecule-ligand composition that comprises one or more particle-bound biomolecule-ligand complexes, wherein a given particle-bound biomolecule in the plurality of particle-bound biomolecules comprises at least one particle bound to at least one biomolecule;
• a light source configured to introduce an incident light toward the sample container receiving area;
• a detector configured to collect light scattered from the particle-bound biomolecule-ligand complexes in the particle-bound biomolecule-ligand composition when the sample container is received in the sample container receiving area and the incident light is introduced from the light source;
• and
• a controller that comprises, or is capable of accessing, computer readable media comprising non-transitory computer-executable instructions which, when executed by at least one electronic processor, perform at least:
• introducing the incident light from the light source toward the particle-bound biomolecule-ligand composition when the sample container is received in the sample container receiving area;
• detecting light scattered from the particle-bound biomolecule-ligand complexes in the particle-bound biomolecule-ligand composition over a duration to produce a set of imaging data using the detector;
• identifying and tracking trajectories of individual particle-bound biomolecule-ligand complexes across a sequence of image frames in the imaging data;
• determining particle size information for the individual tracked complexes at multiple time points during the duration;
• and,
• determining molecular binding kinetics by computing time-dependent changes in the particle size information of the tracked complexes during ligand association events.

A computer readable media comprising non-transitory computer executable instruction which, when executed by at least electronic processor, perform at least:

• introducing an incident light from a light source toward a sample container that comprises a particle-bound biomolecule-ligand composition comprising a plurality of particle-bound biomolecules and a plurality of ligands that binds, or is capable of binding, to biomolecules of the plurality of particle-bound biomolecules to produce a particle-bound biomolecule-ligand composition that comprises one or more particle-bound biomolecule-ligand complexes, wherein a given particle-bound biomolecule in the plurality of particle-bound biomolecules comprises at least one particle bound to at least one biomolecule;
• detecting light scattered from the particle-bound biomolecule-ligand complexes in the particle-bound biomolecule-ligand composition over a duration to produce a set of imaging data using the detector;
• identifying and tracking trajectories of individual particle-bound biomolecule-ligand complexes across a sequence of image frames in the imaging data;
• determining particle size information for the individual tracked complexes at multiple time points during the duration;
• and,
• determining molecular binding kinetics by computing time-dependent changes in the particle size information of the tracked complexes during ligand association events.