This invention relates to a floating horizontal tubular photobioreactor system comprising a photosynthetically active area made of flexible tubes connected to rigid manifolds with an integrated system for mixing, aeration and degassing. This invention further relates to methods of using the floating photobioreactor system.

A method for tuning optical measurements on continuously mixed reactors, wherein a content of the reactor has at least one optically detectable measured variable, which is carried out by at least one optical measuring arrangement, wherein at least one optical measurement is tuned to a form, distribution, or movement state of at least one phase of the reactor content, wherein mixing the reactor content causes local changes in the permittivity within the reactor, which is detected at at least one location having a known distance from the at least one optical measuring arrangement to be tuned based on a permittivity signal, and wherein the detected permittivity signal of at least one location having a known distance from the at least one optical measuring arrangement to be tuned is used to tune at least one optical measurement to the form, distribution, or movement state of the reactor content.

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.

The invention relates to a bioreactor including: a light source (200); a light sensor (300) facing said light source; a vat (100) that is placed between the light source (200) and the light sensor (300), said vat being intended to receive a culture medium comprising a cellular culture of photosynthetic microorganisms; a controller (400) connected to the light sensor (300) in order to control the vat (100) to obtain a chosen cellular-culture concentration (xi) in the culture medium during a working period, said light source (200) being capable of emitting incident light (L) of an input light intensity (Iin) in the direction of the vat (100), and the light sensor (300) being capable of measuring an output light intensity (Iout) and of transmitting data relating to this intensity (Iout) to the controller for the control of the vat; and a system (500) for controlling the light source (200), this system being arranged to adjust, during a period shorter than or equal to said working period, the input light intensity (Iin) to a setpoint value allowing a cellular stress to be induced in certain at least of said photosynthetic microorganisms.

A device for cultivating and observing contractions of a tissue comprises a lower component defining a culture chamber having a transparent bottom, and an upper component having a base plate and two elastic posts arranged at a lateral post distance. Each elastic post has an upper post end fixed to the base plate and a free lower post end. When the upper component is fitted on the lower component, the elastic posts extend into the culture chamber, their lower post ends facing the transparent bottom. Each elastic post includes a light guide for coupling-in light at the upper post end and for coupling-out the light at the lower post end and through the transparent bottom. A piezoelectric bending transducer has an upper transducer end fixed to the base plate and a lower transducer end attached to one of the elastic posts at a vertical distance to its lower post end.

A system for conducting antimicrobial susceptibility testing comprising a reader, one or more cassette slots designed to accept a cassette and operatively associated with the computing device, one or more circuit boards operatively associated with each cassette slot, each circuit board including one or more light sources secured to the circuit board, and one or more light sensors secured to the circuit board, one or more cassettes operatively associated with the one or more cassette slots, each cassette including a housing to secure cassette components, one or more well carrier channels within the housing, one or more well carriers which will be housed in the one or more cassettes, each well carrier including a feed line including a lumen, a port secured to one end of the feed line, and a plurality of reaction wells operatively associated with the feed line and open to the lumen of the feed line.

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.

In the present invention the robotic microinjection platform construction is provided in which three cameras enable simultaneous video streaming of high magnification, low magnification camera views with a third horizon view for Z-depth information to enable microneedle alignment. The triple camera method in combination with image processing algorithms enables automated microneedle alignment and organism targeting in low magnification followed by microneedle manipulations of the organism in high magnification. The object detection algorithms are trained using neural networks on large image datasets. The object detection algorithms improve over time as the training dataset grows as data is acquired with more experimentation.

A microalgae culture broth producing system includes a device for culture broth sterilization using a micro bubble generator, an air compression and pressure equalization device for the injection of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the atmosphere into the culture broth. The system also includes an air chilling device to maintain suitable culture broth temperature when water temperature is too high, an automatic carbon dioxide supply device to promote photosynthesis, and a sealed vertical photobioreactor to block out pollutants and increase dissolved carbon dioxide and oxygen concentration. The system further includes a high-efficiency harvesting device using hollow fiber membranes, and a hot air drying device using the waste heat generated by air compression.

A system for culturing a photosynthetic organism such as a microalga has a liquid storage vessel for storing a liquid that absorbs more light in a short-wavelength range than light in a long-wavelength range, a culture vessel for storing a culture solution containing a photosynthetic organism to be cultured and disposed in the liquid storage vessel, a light quantity measuring unit for measuring the quantity of light that the culture vessel receives and a liquid depth controlling unit for controlling the liquid depth from the surface of the light-absorbing solution to the culture vessel based on the measurement result of the light quantity measuring unit. The light quantity measuring unit measures quantities of light which the culture vessel receives separately for different wavelength ranges. As a result, during the cultivation of a photosynthetic organism for the purpose of producing a biofuel or a useful substance, the increase in temperature and the defect caused by light under a strong light condition can be avoided and the decrease in photosynthetic efficiency can be made smaller.