Patent ID: 7339671
Filing Date: 2008-03-04
Classification: C12M,G01N

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for on-line monitoring biological culture medium in an orbital shaking environment of an incubator/shaker, comprising: a container that can hold a liquid biological culture medium in which biological cells are incubated, and at least a part of the container's wall is optically transparent; at least one light emission source means for emitting light to interact with said biological culture medium through the transparent wall of said container; at least one photodetector means for directly detecting scattered or transmitted light by said biological culture medium through the transparent wall of said container when the emitted light from said light emission source interacts with said biological culture medium; a probe fixture means for mounting and orientating at least one said light emission source and at least one said photodetector in fixed positions relative to each other, and for holding said container firmly without any relative movement with respect to said light emission source, said photodetector and a shaking platform of said incubator/shaker during the on-line monitoring process while said container and the probe fixture are under a continuously shaking condition; detecting means for detecting one and/or more properties of said biological culture medium, one of said properties is the cell concentration in said biological culture medium; processing means for amplifying electrical signal from said photodetector, and then for further processing the signal and presenting the properties of the biological cell culture.