Hitachi, Ltd.

Toyoshige Kobayashi

Kazutoshi Kan

Ryota Nakajima

Shizu Matsuoka

Akira Koide

Takayuki Nozaki

Hideaki Sakai

Taizo Miyazaki

Guangbin Zhou

Naoko Senda

Nozaki Takayuki

The present invention provides a carrier device including a culture vessel and a flow channel, which have a closed structure, for supplying cell liquid or a culture medium into the flow channel; and a method of aseptically injecting liquid, such as the cell or the culture medium, into the culture vessel and the flow channel. The present invention provides a carrier jigincluding a drive base, a culture vessel basethat holds a culture vessel, a culture medium basethat holds a cell bagand the like for the culture medium and the cell, and a detachable flow channel, those of which are held by a liftto be carried to a cell culture device. A part of the flow channeland the cell bagmounted on the carrier jigare put into a clean space. The cell and the culture medium are supplied into the flow channelby using the cell bagand other bags in the clean space, and then, an injection portis closed. The respective bases and the flow channel are simultaneously mounted to the cell culture device by using the carrier jig. Thus, the aseptic cell culture can be realized.

Cell culture device and transport device

Disclosed is a cell culture vessel of the present invention, which is composed of a space enclosed by a housing that supports a medium and a cell attachment part, disposed on the bottom surface of the space, that attaches and supports the cells, the cell attachment part having a cell immobilizing mechanism that guides the cells in the space to the cell attachment part to immobilize there and a cell detachment mechanism that detaches the cells attached in the cell attachment part, the cell immobilizing mechanism having a step of applying a voltage to an electrode disposed in the cell attachment part to generate a heterogeneous electric field in the space, and the cell detachment mechanism having a step of applying a voltage to an electrode disposed in the cell attachment part to induce electrolyte in the space.

Cell culture device

A cell culture apparatus has four sections, including a cell culture chamber, refrigerator, control unit, and intermediate chamber. The cell culture chamber includes a culture vessel base as a holding member for holding and installing a culture vessel, a microscope for photographing a cell image within the culture vessel, and a drive base which has drive mechanisms such as a pump and a valve to be connected to a flow channel having a closed structure including a tank. With the drive base within the cell culture chamber as the center, the rotatable culture vessel is arranged in the horizontal direction and the refrigerator in which the culture medium base containing the cell fluid and culture medium is installed is arranged in the vertical direction. The arrangement configuration is space-saving and provides a short distance between the instruments.

Cell culture apparatus

A culturing apparatus has a culture vessel having a first elastic seal bonded on its upper surface and a culture space formed thereon, and a joint for supplying solution such as a medium to the culture vessel and a second elastic seal having microprojection formed at the lower face. The first elastic seal has a valve for supplying or discharging solution. The second elastic seal is formed with microprojection at the position corresponding to a valve for preventing a spill. The culture vessel and the joint are sucked between the first elastic seal and the second elastic seal, thereby forming an integral seeding device.

Culturing apparatus

A cell culture device comprises a fluid mechanism for branching a liquid appropriately in its flow passage when the liquid is injected to a plurality of culture vessels in a set and feeding equal amounts of the culture broth to the culture vessels at the same time. The device, in one form, has one or plural recess portions so that one or plural culture vessels can be contained in alignment, in view of space efficiency, m x n (row x column) pieces of culture vessels can be set in a matrix type. By using a pump, the culture broth is branched by a multi-way valve for distributing the liquid in an appropriate amount from a tank containing the culture broth, and the liquid is fed at the same time to the plurality of culture vessels in the culture vessel set.

The present invention enables to keep the culture vessel clean with the clean air without touching the open air in which floating bacteria exist, and to culture cells with taking in and out the culture apparatus under the environment with low damages for the cells in constant temperature. The present invention is the culture vessel box which has one or more culture vessels, has the heater, and has the door outside which the good adhesive resin film is stuck, the culture apparatus which has various apparatuses including a heater and culture cells, and has the door outside which the resin film is stuck similarly to the culture vessel box and has its storing chamber. So, it is characterized in that the culture vessel box and the culture apparatus are connected with keeping an interior of the culture vessel box, including a culture vessel, and the interior of the culture apparatus in the clean state and constant temperature by sticking mutual doors of the culture vessel box and culture apparatus at the time of connection to confine the dirty portion which touched on open air by adhesiveness of their resin films, and moving the doors to the door storing chamber integrally.

Culture system, culture apparatus, culture vessel box, and air cleaning method

A cell culture apparatus is provided in which a plurality of culture vessels can be mounted and removed in a set, which has a regulation mechanism that can fix each culture vessel in the correct position, and which enables suppression of production costs. The cell culture apparatus has one or a plurality of concave portions, and can arrange and accommodate one or a plurality of culture vessels in the concave portions. Spring-type fixing devices are provided in the depth direction and the width direction, respectively, in each concave portion. The two spring-type fixing devices press against side surfaces of the culture vessel to fix the culture vessel in the culture vessel set. At this time, by pressing against the culture vessel at two points, the position of the culture vessel at the time of fixing can be maintained with good accuracy.

Growing community of inventors

Fujimino, Japan

Toyoshige Kobayashi