Cell motility is essential to embryogenesis, immune system function, wound healing, and cancer dissemination. It is a highly orchestrated process in which mechanical changes in the cytoskeleton and interactions with environment are balanced and sequenced in time and space. My laboratory seeks to understand the molecular signaling events that control these structural changes. How do extracellular signals impinge on cells' actin, myosin, and adhesion dynamics to control motility? How does signaling pathway hyperactivation during oncogenesis impact cancer invasion? I will discuss how we use quantitative image analysis of live-cell motility to gain the spatial and temporal precision needed to dissect the dynamic motility process.