Cell observation apparatus and observation method

Abstract

Provided is a cell observation apparatus and an observation method with which only an observation target cell in an region of interest is illuminated with illuminating light to prevent photobleaching of cells that are not the observation target. The invention employs a cell observation apparatus including an objective lens that illuminates a specimen with illuminating light, a scanner that adjusts an area illuminated with illuminating light by the objective lens, an image generating portionthat generates an image of the specimen illuminated by the objective lens, a cell-data extracting portionthat extracts data showing the characteristics of each cell from the generated image of the specimen, a cell-area extracting portionthat extracts an area of each cell associated with the extracted data of each cell, a cell-of-interest selecting portionthat selects the cell of interest from the specimen in accordance with the extracted data of each cell, and a controller that operates the scanner to illuminate the cell area corresponding to the cell of interest selected by the cell-of-interest selecting portionwith the illuminating light.