Disclosed herein is an instrument suitable for processing cells for example culturing, concentrating or washing said cells, the instrument comprising: a housing for accommodating mechanical elements including at least one fluid pump; and a disposable processing kit complementary to the mechanical elements within the housing and comprising a fluid circuit including a fluid reservoir and plural fluid paths capable of carrying fluid flow caused by said pump(s), the instrument further including a mechanism for determining the quantity, or change in quantity of the fluid in the reservoir resulting from said fluid flow, the instrument yet further comprising a controller operable to control at least the pump and operable to perform a fault determination process, which includes the steps of determining the expected flow rate of said pump(s) calculated from the speed of the pump(s) and comparing that expected flow with the change in quantity of the fluid in the reservoir as determined by said mechanism.

A biocontainer having a first film, the film having an interior and exterior side; articulating elements disposed on or within the first film, the articulating elements comprising at least one a folded hinge, a sealed joint, a thinned pathway, a bowed path, an embedded polymeric or metallic cylindrical fiber or rod; and a second film, optionally comprising articulating elements, joined to the first film, to form a biocontainer having a closed volume, wherein the articulating elements permit the biocontainer to expand and collapse along the articulating elements.

Provided are a culture apparatus and a culture method with which microalgae can be cultured satisfactorily. The culture apparatus includes a plurality of culture tanks and a water storage tank, and cultures microalgae in a culture solution. Each of the plurality of culture tanks has a translucent accommodating portion containing the culture solution and microalgae. The volumes of the accommodating portions of the plurality of culture tanks are different from each other. The water storage tank has a translucent water storage unit for storing a stored water. The plurality of culture tanks are selectively arranged in the water storage unit.

Apparatus, systems and methods for the adaptive passage of a culture of cells and apparatus and methods for dissociating cell colonies are described. The systems may include an imaging module, a pipette module, a handling module, and/or a stage module. Coordinated operation of the modules, optionally in an automated manner, is effected by at least one processor based on one or more characteristics of the culture of cells calculated from one or more images captured at more than one time point. A first apparatus for adaptive passage of a culture cells includes an imaging module and at least one processor, which apparatus may be included in the systems or used in the methods. A second apparatus for dissociating cell colonies, may also be included in the systems or used in the methods, includes impact bumper(s) collidable with impact bracket(s) to transmit a dissociative force to a culture of cells.

An anaerobic digestion device based on self-sustained air flotation includes an anaerobic digestion tank unit, a self-sustained air flotation screening unit and a biogas measurement and collection unit. The self-sustained air flotation screening unit includes an air flotation screening part, a material sedimentation part, a reflux part and a three-phase separation part connected sequentially from bottom to top. A digested material in the anaerobic digestion tank unit is pumped into the air flotation screening part, overflows into the material sedimentation part, and then is raised to the reflux part. Gas passing through the three-phase separation part and gas produced in the anaerobic digestion tank unit enter the biogas measurement and collection unit to be measured and collected.

A cell culture method is a cell culture method for arranging cultured cells in a culture dish and continuously culturing the cultured cells by supplying a liquid required to grow or maintain the cultured cells to the culture dish and discharging the liquid from the culture dish. The cell culture method includes: providing a supply port of the liquid at one end of the culture dish and providing a discharge port of the liquid at other end of the culture dish so as to sandwich the cultured cells between the supply port and the discharge port, and discharging the liquid while supplying the liquid to the culture dish so that a moving linear velocity of the liquid from the supply port toward the discharge port is less than a maximum velocity at which shear stress is not applied to the cultured cells.

A separation system, a method in a separation system and an elution arrangement to be provided in a separation system for separating a biomolecule from a cell culture are provided. The method comprises the steps of: —providing a feed from a cell culture (3; 103; 203) comprising said biomolecule to a magnetic separator (5; 105; 205) and providing to the magnetic separator magnetic beads comprising ligands capable of binding this biomolecule; —separating by the magnetic separator said magnetic beads with bound biomolecules from the rest of the feed; —forwarding said magnetic beads as a slurry with an added buffer to an elution cell (7; 107; 207); —eluting the bound biomolecules in the elution cell.

A stem cell manufacturing system for manufacturing stem cells from somatic cells includes: one or more closed production device(s) configured to produce stem cells from somatic cells; one or more drive device(s) configured to be connected with the production device(s) and drive the production device(s) in such a manner as to maintain the production device(s) in an environment suitable for producing stem cells; one or more cryopreservation device(s) configured to cryopreserve the produced stem cells; a first memory device configured to store whether or not somatic cells have been introduced to the production device(s), as a first state; a second memory device configured to store whether or not the production device(s) is/are connected with the drive device(s), as a second state; and a third memory device configured to store whether or not the produced stem cells can be placed in the cryopreservation device(s), as a third state.

A filtration system, a filtration assembly, and a method for using the filtration assembly to determine the presence or absence of microorganisms in a fluid filtered by the filtration assembly, are disclosed.

Novel methods and apparatus are disclosed for cell culture and cell recovery. The methods and apparatus simplify the process of cell separation from media, minimize potential damage to gas permeable devices during fluid handling, and allow closed system automated cell culture and cell recovery from gas permeable devices.