Disclosed herein are cartridges for transfecting cells and/or generating clonal populations of cells comprising: a) a first compartment configured for performing cell transfection, wherein the first compartment comprises a first inlet configured for introduction of a cell sample; b) a second compartment configured for performing cell selection, wherein an inlet of the second compartment is operably coupled to an outlet of the first compartment, and wherein the second compartment further comprises at least one optically-transparent wall and an outlet that is operably coupled to an intermediate cell removal port; and c) a third compartment configured for performing cell expansion, wherein an inlet of the third compartment is operably coupled to the outlet of the second compartment.

The invention relates to a device designed for the cultivation and radiation-induced killing of living biological cells. The device comprises a flat substrate and a functional layer for creating a wound in biological cells, said functional layer being applied to the flat substrate. The functional layer contains at least one photosensitizer which is designed to convert triplet oxygen into singlet oxygen by the application of electromagnetic radiation. As a result, biological cells on the functional layer can be killed by irradiation of low-intensity electromagnetic radiation. A wound can be introduced into a cell layer at a locally defined point easily, quickly, carefully, and in a flexible and cost-effective manner and thus the healing of the wound can be studied. The invention further relates to uses of the devices and a method for analyzing a migration and/or wound healing behavior of biological cells.

An object of the invention is to provide an electroporation method for treating vesicles with exogenous material for insertion of the exogenous material into the vesicles which includes the steps of: a. retaining a suspension of the vesicles and the exogenous material in a treatment volume in a chamber which includes electrodes, wherein the chamber has a geometric factor (cm.sup.−1) defined by the quotient of the electrode gap squared (cm.sup.2) divided by the chamber volume (cm.sup.3), wherein the geometric factor is less than or equal to 0.1 cm.sup.−1, wherein the suspension of the vesicles and the exogenous material is in a medium which is adjusted such that the medium has conductivity in a range spanning 50 microSiemens/cm to 500 microSiemens/cm, wherein the suspension is enclosed in the chamber during treatment, and b. treating the suspension enclosed in the chamber with one or more pulsed electric fields. With the method, the treatment volume of the suspension is scalable, and the time of treatment of the vesicles in the chamber is substantially uniform.

A cell evaluation device includes: a porous membrane having a first main face and a second main face; a first passage having a first passage portion facing a first area on which cells are placed in the first main face of the porous membrane; a second passage having a second passage portion facing a second area in the second main face of the porous membrane, the second area being positioned backside of the first area; and a first electrode provided in the first passage portion and a second electrode provided in the second passage portion, the first electrode and the second electrode being positioned across the first area and the second area. In the cell evaluation device, tight junctions are formed among the cells by cell cultivation. With the cell evaluation device, any increase in the electric resistance occurring due to the formation of the tight junctions can be easily measured.

The present invention relates to a particulate material separation assembly. It comprises a filtration membrane and an antifouling device. The antifouling device comprises one or more magnets and a plurality of magnetisable particles. The one or more magnets cause the plurality of magnetisable particles to self-assemble into dynamic bristles, thereby forming a brush. The particulate material separation assembly is particularly useful in the context of micro algae harvesting.

A combination of an electrochemical device for delivering reducing equivalents to a cell, and engineered metabolic pathways within the cell capable of utilizing the electrochemically provided reducing equivalents is disclosed. Such a combination allows the production of commodity chemicals by fermentation to proceed with increased carbon efficiency.

A cell treatment apparatus capable of treating cells in a cell culture vessel. The cell treatment apparatus (100) according to the present invention includes a first region (1), a second region (3), and a third region (5). The first region (1) and the second region (3) are placed in succession. The first region (1) is a cell treatment chamber for treating cells. The cell treatment chamber can be closed from the outside of the cell treatment chamber and includes a culture vessel placement portion for placing a cell culture vessel. The second region (3) includes a laser irradiation device capable of irradiating the cell culture vessel placed in the culture vessel placement portion with a laser. The third region (5) includes a control device that controls at least one device in the cell treatment apparatus (100) and a power supply device (52) that supplies electric power to at least one device in the cell treatment apparatus (100). The culture vessel placement portion is placed to be adjacent to the second region (3) in the cell treatment chamber. An adjacent portion to the second region (3) in the culture vessel placement portion is translucent.

Tissue and cellular samples can be electrically dissociated into single cells and/or smaller groups of cells. The tissue samples can be housed in a device (which may also include a fluid) with one or more electrodes residing within the device. The device can be used to process one or more tissue samples. An electric field can be established through the device and the tissue samples can be dissociated into single cells and/or smaller groups of cells under the electric field.

The present invention provides a method for efficiently separating and purifying functional pituitary hormone-producing cells and/or progenitor cells thereof from differentiated tissues derived from pluripotent stem cells.

A microfluidic chip for culturing and real-time monitoring of multicellular tissues and use method thereof. The chip comprises a glass substrate layer, and a PDMS microchannel layer located on the glass substrate layer, wherein the glass substrate layer comprises a glass substrate, and a plurality of microelectrodes thereon; the PDMS microchannel comprises a plurality of independent microfluidic channels; the microelectrodes on the glass substrate are in one-to-one correspondence with the microfluidic channels in the PDMS microchannel layer; and the microelectrodes are electrically connected to an external circuit. The use method comprises: cell capture, cell or tissue culture, electrical impedance spectroscopy detection, and tissue release.