  Numerous biological approaches are available to characterise the mechanisms
which govern the formation of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) colonies. To
understand how the kinematics of single and pairs of hESCs impact colony
formation, we study their mobility characteristics using time-lapse imaging. We
perform a detailed statistical analysis of their speed, survival,
directionality, distance travelled and diffusivity. We confirm that single and
pairs of cells migrate as a diffusive random walk. Moreover, we show that the
presence of Cell Tracer significantly reduces hESC mobility. Our results open
the path to employ the theoretical framework of the diffusive random walk for
the prognostic modelling and optimisation of the growth of hESC colonies.
Indeed, we employ this random walk model to estimate the seeding density
required to minimise the occurrence of hESC colonies arising from more than one
founder cell and the minimal cell number needed for successful colony
formation. We believe that our prognostic model can be extended to investigate
the kinematic behaviour of somatic cells emerging from hESC differentiation and
to enable its wide application in phenotyping of pluripotent stem cells for
large scale stem cell culture expansion and differentiation platforms.
