A system for electronically and optically monitoring biological samples, the system including: a multi-well plate having a plurality of wells configured to receive a plurality of biological samples, each of the wells having a set of electrodes and a transparent window on a bottom surface of the well that is free of electrodes; an illumination module configured to illuminate the wells; a cradle configured to receive the multi-well plate, the cradle having an opening on the bottom that exposes the transparent windows of the wells; and an optical imaging module movable across different wells of a same multi-well plate to capture images through the windows.

The invention relates to a modular processing system for biopharmaceutical and/or chemical processes, comprising: at least one processing unit; at least one adapter plate, which can be directly or indirectly fluidically connected to the processing unit, wherein the adapter plate has at least one adapter channel, through which at least one fluid flow can flow to the processing unit, wherein the adapter plate also has at least one deflection element and/or a pump and/or at least one valve; and an external control device. The adapter plate is designed in such a way that the fluid flow to the processing unit can be at least partially deflected with the at least one deflection element in the adapter channel and/or the fluid flow, preferably its pressure, is controllable with the at least one valve and/or the pump in the adapter channel. A respective at least one sensor is embedded in the processing unit and/or in the adapter plate, in order to detect at least one property of the fluid flow in the processing unit or the adapter plate. The external control device can be coupled to the at least one sensor in such a way that measurement data of at least one sensor can be read out, and the fluid flow in the processing unit and or the adapter plate can be centrally controlled based on the read-out measurement data. The invention also relates to a method for centrally controlling a modular processing system for biopharmaceutical and/or chemical processes.

There is provided a culturing assistance device including: a memory which stores a program; and a processor which executes the program, wherein the processor executes the program to implement: acquiring a plurality of captured images in which cells are captured in time series; calculating a probability that a state of the cells shown in the acquired image is a certain state; reading predetermined state change rule information which is stored in a storage unit and indicates a relationship among a plurality of states of the cells in the time-series; and determining the state of the cell based on the calculated probability and the read state change rule information.

Disclosed are a biomimic system simulating lung tissue, a method for manufacturing same, and a microfluidic control method using same, wherein the biomimic system comprises lung epithelial cells and lung fibroblasts, which are isolated from human lungs, and commercially available vascular endothelial cells, and wherein a microfluid flows through the biomimic system. Each chamber inside the corresponding system can allow a fluid, which contains gas and a medium, to flow therethrough and simulate respiration-like movement, wherein all of the three types of cells can survive inside the system even when one week or more have elapsed after through-flow of the fluid. In addition, the pH and pO.sub.2 in the chamber can be monitored by using a pH sensor and a gas partial pressure sensor inside the system, and thus the three types of cells inside the system can be exposed to external environments, drugs, and the like under the same conditions as in the lungs in vivo. Therefore, a wide range of studies including modeling of lung diseases by harmful substances and testing of therapeutic drug efficacy can be conducted, and further, the utilization to in vitro disease modeling, customized medicine prescriptions, and the like can also be made.

Disclosed herein is a colony analysis apparatus, which cultures microorganisms collected from food subject to microbial collection on a plurality of Petri substrates and analyzes colors and the number of the cultured microorganisms by image recognition, thereby accurately determining and analyzing the contamination level of the food subject to microbial collection by an average value of the analysis.

A method and system is provided for increasing lipids, biomass, and metabolite yields of a microalgae culture of cells and other organisms with conserved metabolic pathways compared to an untreated culture or organism when maintained under normal conditions. The method includes irradiating with electromagnetic ionizing radiation to induce rapid and reproducible hormetic metabolic activation in the organism cells. In an embodiment, the irradiation can be applied in a exponential or stationary phase of microalgae growth. The hormetic effect involves up-regulation of expression of lipid metabolism genes encoding enzymes that are involved in the biosynthesis of lipids with accumulation of energy reserves in the form of lipids and/or accumulation of other metabolites. The method can be implemented in a system that can interface with existing microalgae cultivation platforms, standard microalgae cultivation conditions, alongside standard microalgae culture types, and similarly with organisms with conserved metabolic pathways in their growth substrates.

The invention relates to a method of increasing the yield of virus, virus particles, or viral vectors from host cells in a bioreactor. The invention provides a reproducible and robust method and system of determining and controlling the optimal time of infection of host cells using a correlation of process air parameters including Air flow, O.sub.2 flow, and respective trends thereof resulting in increased virus yield.

An object of the present invention is to provide a kit or a device for the detection of prostate cancer and a method for detecting prostate cancer. The present invention provides a kit or a device for the detection of prostate cancer, comprising a nucleic acid capable of specifically binding to a miRNA in a sample of a subject, and a method for detecting prostate cancer, comprising measuring the miRNA in vitro.

An object of the present invention is to provide a kit or a device for the detection of prostate cancer and a method for detecting prostate cancer. The present invention provides a kit or a device for the detection of prostate cancer, comprising a nucleic acid capable of specifically binding to a miRNA in a sample of a subject, and a method for detecting prostate cancer, comprising measuring the miRNA in vitro.

Disclosed is a method for selecting a cancer treatment regimen for a subject.