Aspects of the present invention provide improved methods and apparatus for use in in vitro modeling of the interaction of cells with cellular constructs/parts/axons, including axon mimetics and use of three-dimensional fibers.

The invention relates to a device for examining a medium (100) inside a bioreactor (200; 201), comprising a sample-taking module (20) for taking a sample of the medium (100). The sample-taking module (20) comprises an uptake region (10; 10a; 10b) that can be arranged to make contact with the medium (100) inside the bioreactor (200; 201). At least two different membranes (15, 16) are positioned on the uptake region (10; 10a; 10b) of said sample-taking module (20), for the purpose of taking a sample of the medium (100).

An analysis device includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire an image of a cell and an identification unit configured to identify elements that are identifiable on the basis of the image of cell acquired by the acquisition unit. Characteristic quantities of the elements identified by the identification unit are calculated, a correlation between the characteristic quantities is calculated on the basis of the calculated characteristic quantities of the elements, and a correlation between the elements is calculated on the basis of the calculated correlation between the characteristic quantities.

A method for monitoring a biotechnological process, wherein starting materials are converted into products via a biomass and important process parameters for monitoring are identified during the process, where during the process, a current concentration of the biomass utilized in the process is recurrently estimated, current measurement values of measurable process parameters are then recurrently determined on a recurring basis and current values for additional process parameters are identified therefrom, where the current measurement values of the measurable process parameters and the current determined values of the additional process parameters are based on the respective temporally correlating concentration of biomass and where, from a combination of the current concentration of biomass and the current measurement values of the measurable process parameters and the identified current values of the additional process parameters, current, cell-specific metabolic indicators are then derived which are then used in conjunction with a deterministic process model.

A process and system for efficiently producing reference data that can be fed into a predictive model for predicting quality attribute concentrations in cell culture processes. A perfusion bioreactor is operated at pseudo-steady-state conditions and one or more attribute influencing parameters are manipulated and changed over time. As the one or more attribute influencing parameters are manipulated, one or more quality attributes are monitored and measured. In one embodiment, multiple quality attributes are monitored and measured in parallel. The quality attribute information is recorded in conjunction with the changes in the attribute influencing parameters. This information is then fed to the predictive model for propagating cell cultures in commercial processes and maintaining the cell cultures within desired preset limits.

The present invention relates to a cell determination method for determining a cell type based on a content of glycogen in a cell, including: an acquisition step of acquiring optical path length data by measuring an optical path length of the cell; a calculation step of calculating an optical path length indicator correlated with the optical path length of the cell from the obtained optical path length data; a comparison step of comparing the calculated optical path length indicator with a threshold; and a determination step of determining whether the cell is a cell type having a high glycogen content in the cell or a cell type having a low glycogen content in the cell, based on the comparison result.

A system and method for continuously monitoring as well as identifying and quantifying intracellular components in a cell culture such as microalgal culture of a bioreactor is described. This is done to determine an optimum concentration of intracellular components of interest, such as lipids. The method may be integrated directly with the cultivation chamber to conduct real-time measurements to quickly obtain accurate and continuous information that may be used as feedback to control the cultivation growth conditions. Such characterization may provide highly relevant data to determine if the culture is ready for biofuel processing. If the culture is not ready for biofuel processing, the data allows for the modification of the growth condition in the microalgae culture in order to achieve the desired concentration of the microalgal intracellular component of interest for biofuel processing.

Devices, systems, and methods for evaluating the viability of embryos are disclosed. In particular, devices, systems, and methods for measuring internal and external pH of an embryo, electrolytes, and oxidative stress markers for evaluating developmental potential of an embryo are provided. The methods disclosed herein should improve in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcomes by reducing inadvertent transfer of non-viable embryos.

Combining through self-modulation a flow of active media from a working vessel of a bioprocess together with a flow of reference media and making a time- and/or spatially-resolved referenced optical measurement of the active vs reference media in a confined flow region and time, such that the two liquids are measured in substantially identical conditions.

Systems and methods for optimizing detection of optical signals indicating the presence of an analyte of interest in a blood sample are described. In one aspect, a blood culture test vial having a sensor is inoculated with the blood sample, light at an excitation frequency of the sensor is transmitted to the test vial, an intensity of a plurality of fluorescence signals emitted from the test vial is measured, and the plurality of measured fluorescence signals are normalized using by a reference signal that is not dependent on a measured intensity of a fluorescence signal emitted from the test vial. In another aspect, a measurement system measures fluorescence signals from one or more reference vials performing in extreme pH conditions. Fluorescence signals emitted from test vials inoculated with samples under test are measured and compared to the signals measured from the one or more reference vials to address or mitigate variability in hardware components of the measurement system.