A cell culture apparatus includes a flow passage in which cell suspension containing at least one of cells or cell masses as granular bodies is to flow, and an imaging unit that is provided in a middle of the flow passage and continuously images the plurality of granular bodies contained in the cell suspension to acquire a plurality of images while the cell suspension flows in the flow passage.

A flow path device comprises a plate-like measurement flow path device and a plate-like separation flow path device. The measurement flow path device includes a first flow path for measuring specific particles on a first fluid and connected to a third flow path and a second flow path for correction and passing a second fluid, not including the specific particles. The separation flow path device includes a fourth flow path for separating and selecting the specific particles from a sample and collecting a fluid. The separation flow path device is on the measurement flow path device's upper surface. The sample passes through a fifth flow path, the upper surface's opening, and flows into the fourth flow path from an opening in the separation flow path device's lower surface. The first fluid passes through the lower surface's opening, and flows into the first flow path from the upper surface's opening.

A particle detector including at least one channel intended to receive at least one fluid comprising particles and configured to receive at least one light beam emitted by a light source. The particle detector further including at least one photodetector network configured such that at least some photodetectors receive light beams emitted by the source and scattered by the particles present in the channel. The detector further comprises at least one optical system, each optical system s associated with a photodetector network and has at least one image focal plane and an optical axis. The detector is configured such that the image focal plane of the optical system is optically coupled to the photodetector network.

A dual light source lens-free dielectrophoresis (DEP) flow cytometer for massively parallel single cell analysis. Each cells dielectric is inferred from measuring their altitude and subsequently velocity change due to DEP actuation in a microfluidic channel. Dual LED sources facilitate velocity measurement by producing two shadows for each cell passing through the channel. These shadows are detected using a linear optical array detector. Massively parallel analysis is possible as each pixel of the detector can independently analyze the passing cells. The DEP cytometer is composed of simple modular components and has the potential to be scaled to achieve a significantly high throughput label-free single-cell analyzer.

An optical microcavity device (10), an alignment structure for an optical device, and a method for aligning an optical device are disclosed. The optical microcavity device (10) comprises: a first optical reflector (20); a second optical reflector (30) opposed to the first optical reflector (20) along an optical axis (40), the first and second optical reflectors (20, 30) being spaced from each other forming an open space therebetween; wherein the first optical reflector (20) comprises a first cavity reflector (22) and a first alignment reflector (24), wherein the second optical reflector (30) comprises a second cavity reflector (32) and a second alignment reflector (34), the second cavity reflector (32) comprising a recess to provide an optical microcavity between the first and second cavity reflectors (20, 30), the optical microcavity having an optical cavity length of at most 50 μm and/or an optical mode volume of 100 μm3 or less; an EM radiation source (50) configured for illuminating the optical microcavity with EM radiation (52) to cause multi-pass interference within the optical microcavity; and an alignment system configured to: illuminate the first and second alignment reflectors (24, 34) of the first and second optical reflectors (20, 30) to generate an optical interference pattern (74); detect the optical interference pattern (74); and determine a relative orientation and/or separation of the first and second optical reflectors (20, 30) based on the detected optical interference pattern (74); the alignment system further comprising an actuator system (100, 102) configured to move the first and second optical reflectors (20, 30) relative to each other to change the relative orientation and/or separation of the first and second optical reflectors (20, 30) based on the determined relative orientation and/or separation. At least one of the first and second alignment reflectors (20, 30) may comprise an alignment structure comprising at least two reflective surface portions having different angular orientations.

A measurement apparatus according to the present disclosure is a measurement apparatus capable of measuring particles in a fluid and comprises: a flow path device including a first flow path with translucency through which a first fluid including the particles passes and a second flow path with translucency through which a second fluid which does not include the particles passes; an optical sensor facing the flow path device, irradiating each of the first flow path and the second flow path with light, and receiving light passing through each of the first flow path and the second flow path; and a controller measuring the particles by comparing an intensity of light passing through the first flow path and an intensity of light passing through the second flow path, each of which is obtained by the optical sensor.

The invention, provides a method, apparatus and system for separating blood and other types of cellular components, and can be combined with holographic optical trapping manipulation or other forms of optical tweezing. One of the exemplary methods includes providing a first flow having a plurality of blood components; providing a second flow; contacting the first flow with the second flow to provide a first separation region; and differentially sedimenting a first blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components into the second flow while concurrently maintaining a second blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components in the first flow. The second flow having the first blood cellular component is then differentially removed from the first flow having the second blood cellular component. Holographic optical traps may also be utilized in conjunction with the various flows to move selected components from one flow to another, as part of or in addition to a separation stage.

The invention provides a method, apparatus and system for separating blood and other types of cellular components, and can be combined with holographic optical trapping manipulation or other forms of optical tweezing. One of the exemplary methods includes providing a first flow having a plurality of blood components; providing a second flow; contacting the first flow with the second flow to provide a first separation region; and differentially sedimenting a first blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components into the second flow while concurrently maintaining a second blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components in the first flow. The second flow having the first blood cellular component is then differentially removed from the first flow having the second blood cellular component. Holographic optical traps may also be utilized in conjunction with the various flows to move selected components from one flow to another, as part of or in addition to a separation stage.

An apparatus for particle characterisation, comprising: a sample cell for holding a sample; a light source configured to illuminate the sample with an illuminating beam and a plurality of light detectors, each light detector configured to receive scattered light resulting from the interaction between the illuminating beam and the sample along a respective detector path, wherein each respective detector path is at substantially the same angle to the illuminating beam.

The invention generally provides systems and methods for particle detection for minimizing microbial growth and cross-contamination in manufacturing environments requiring low levels of microbes, such as cleanroom environments for electronics manufacturing and aseptic environments for manufacturing pharmaceutical and biological products, such as sterile medicinal products. In some embodiments, systems of the invention incorporate a housing having an outer surface being a first antimicrobial surface and a touchscreen being a second antimicrobial surface. In some embodiments, substantially all of the outer surfaces of the system are antimicrobial surfaces. In some embodiments, the first antimicrobial surface may comprise an Active Screen Plasma alloyed layer. In some embodiments, the housing may comprise a molded polymer substrate and a metal coating layer bonded to the molded polymer substrate such that at least some exterior surfaces of the housing are metal coated surfaces.