Purpose of review: Studying heterogeneous populations, such as hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), requires continuous long-term observation of living cells at the single-cell level. The purpose of this review is to discuss recent advances in technologies required for continuous single-cell analysis and the contribution of this approach to find answers in hematopoiesis research.
Recent findings: Continuous long-term imaging at the single-cell level still requires custom-made hardware, software and manual in-depth analysis of large amounts of data. Despite these technical difficulties, continuous time-lapse imaging and single-cell tracking are increasingly used in hematopoiesis research. It has already contributed to answering decades-old questions.
Summary: Continuous long-term single-cell analysis is indispensable for a comprehensive analysis of dynamic processes in heterogeneous cell populations. Despite many remaining technological hurdles, this approach is increasingly used in hematopoiesis research.