The present disclosure provides methods and materials for the cultivation and/or propagation of a photosynthetic organism. Such methods may comprise the use of a lamp assembly that comprises a plurality of circuit boards, each comprising at least three edges, arranged in a substantially spherical shape defining an interior lamp assembly volume, wherein the plurality of circuit boards comprise a first planar surface in contact with the interior lamp assembly volume and an opposing second planar surface comprising light emitting diodes (LEDs); and a barrier that surrounds the plurality of circuit boards forming the substantially spherical shape.

Provided is a method of using a device including a plurality of microscale experimental units. At least one cell and an indicator capable of producing an optical signal are loaded in each of the plurality of experimental units. The device with the loaded contents is incubated to grow a plurality of cells. At least one optical property of the contents of each of the plurality of experimental units is measured at multiple time points during the incubation to thereby obtain a time-dependent profile. The time-dependent profile for the plurality of experimental units are analyzed, and the analysis result may be used to select/transfer contents from certain experimental unit(s) for further cultivation and/or assay, or to determine whether certain experimental units contain any biological entity of interest.

An observation system includes an illumination unit including a light source from which emits an illumination light including light of a plurality of colors, and light receiving unit including an optical sensor which acquires a light intensity. The illumination unit emits the illumination light for a culture vessel so that the illumination light travels from a first side to a second side of the culture vessel, the first side and the second side being defined by interposing a culture medium. The light receiving unit receives, on the first side, light emitted from the illumination unit, entering the culture vessel from the first side, reflected at the second side, and transmitted through the culture medium, and acquires a light intensity for each color in the received light for calculation of a pH value of the culture medium.

An air-stirred tank reactor (ASTR) and methods of use thereof are described herein. The ASTR is equipped with an impeller or set of impellers that mechanically mixes a liquid culture, as well as sparges gas into the liquid medium. The impeller can further have lighting sources that can illuminate the liquid culture. Unlike conventional bioreactors, the ASTR provides superior liquid mixing, efficient gas mass transfer, and a low-shear culture environment through appropriate impeller rotational speed and sparging rate.

Disclosures of the present invention describe a method and device for stimulating biological fermentation. In the present invention, a light source is particularly used for stimulating a biological fermentation by supplying an illumination light with a color temperature in a range between 1600K and 4300K. Moreover, a variety of experimental data have proved that, the illumination light is indeed helpful in stimulating the biological fermentation occurring in an object under fermentation so as to enhance a rate of ethanol fermentation. It is worth further explaining that, the method and the device for stimulating biological fermentation can be applied in any one type of fermentation apparatus.

The present invention relates to a method of determining the concentration of intact microorganisms in a sample comprising optionally diluting an aliquot of the sample to provide a diluted aliquot at a dilution value; contacting at least a portion of an aliquot or of a diluted aliquot of the sample with first and second stains capable of binding to DNA, wherein the first stain is a fluorescent stain, is cell-permeable, and has a first emission wavelength, and the second stain is cell-impermeable, and is capable of acting as an acceptor molecule in a FRET pair with the first stain acting as a donor molecule; imaging the aliquot-stain mixture at the first emission wavelength and determining an image analysis value for the number of objects corresponding to intact microorganisms in the imaged mixture; and comparing the image analysis value for said aliquot to a pre-determined calibration curve, as well as an apparatus, a consumable and a kit therefor.

Provided is a culture-medium-monitoring apparatus including: an optical measurement unit that includes an illumination light source and a collecting lens that radiate an illumination light onto a culturing liquid, a retroreflective member that has an array in which micro-reflective elements are arrayed, that is disposed so as to sandwich the vessel between the retroreflective member, and the illuminating light source and the collecting lens, and that reflects the illumination light passed through the culturing liquid in the vessel, and a light detector that detects an intensity of the illumination light passed through the culturing liquid in the vessel after being reflected by the retroreflective member; and a control portion that causes the intensity of the illumination light to be repeatedly detected at a prescribed timing, and that determines a state of the culturing liquid on the basis of a change over time in the intensity of the illumination light.

Methods and systems for preparing clonal cell populations are described. In some instances the disclosed methods comprise: a) identifying and selecting a cell based on its position on a surface or in a container, where the selection is not based on whether the cell comprises an exogenous label or an expressed reporter; b) photoablating all non-selected cells on the surface or in the container; and c) growing a clonal population of the selected cell.

The present invention provides an erythrocyte-culture monitoring device including a light source that radiates monochromatic light onto a culture solution culturing erythrocytes accommodated in a culture container, a first photodetector that detects a light intensity of the monochromatic light transmitted through the culture solution, and a controller that evaluates an amount of hemoglobin in the culture solution based on a temporal change in the light intensity detected by the photodetector.

An algae cultivation system may include: a plurality of panels within a cultivation container, positioned along a first axis perpendicular to the gravitational force, wherein a cultivation volume is created between each pair of panels, and wherein the cultivation volumes are fluidly coupled so as to allow horizontal flow therebetween along the first axis; at least one first sparger, to distribute a first fluid into the container at a first operating flow rate; at least one second sparger, to distribute a second fluid into the container at a second operating flow rate; and at least one controller, to control the first operating flow rate and the second operating flow rate. The first operating flow rate may be adapted to allow turbulent mixing the algae in the cultivation container, and the second operating flow rate may be adapted to allow assimilation of materials in a liquid in the cultivation container.