Abstract:
The present invention enables to keep the culture vessel clean with the clean air without touching the open air in which floating bacteria exist, and to culture cells with taking in and out the culture apparatus under the environment with low damages for the cells in constant temperature. The present invention is the culture vessel box which has one or more culture vessels, has the heater, and has the door outside which the good adhesive resin film is stuck, the culture apparatus which has various apparatuses including a heater and culture cells, and has the door outside which the resin film is stuck similarly to the culture vessel box and has its storing chamber. So, it is characterized in that the culture vessel box and the culture apparatus are connected with keeping an interior of the culture vessel box, including a culture vessel, and the interior of the culture apparatus in the clean state and constant temperature by sticking mutual doors of the culture vessel box and culture apparatus at the time of connection to confine the dirty portion which touched on open air by adhesiveness of their resin films, and moving the doors to the door storing chamber integrally.

Description:
CLAIM OF PRIORITY 
       [0001]    The present application claims priority from Japanese application JP 2006-154765 filed on Jun. 2, 2006, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference into this application. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0003]    The present invention is concerning culture system to culture cells, culture apparatus, culture vessel box, and air cleaning method. In particular, this is the contents about sterilely connect the processing chamber to the storing chamber to store processing objects in and those which enable to take out the object sterilely after processing. 
         [0004]    2. Background Technology 
         [0005]    Heretofore, the cell culture operation was done by skilled specialists in a clean room excluding bacteria as possible. Therefore, when culturing a lot of cells toward industrialization, they may arise increase of workers&#39; loads, time and cost which are necessary for education and training of workers, artificial mistakes and mistaking samples, and contamination by those who hold bacteria. Then, we will need much costs for those measures. It becomes a large wall in industrialization. 
         [0006]    Then, from the idea that automation of a culture progress can solve these problems, JP Patent Publication No. 2002-262856A discloses an example of an automatic cell culture. In the cell culture apparatus described in JP Patent Publication No. 2002-262856A, an apparatus to exchange culture medium automatically is equipped with an incubator, a robot exchanging culture medium, and a management computer. That takes out a cell culture tray from the inside of the incubator with a transfer robot, inserts new liquid medium with the needle after discharges old liquid medium in the culture tray with a needle, and stocks the culture tray into the incubator. 
         [0007]    In addition, in a series of the progress culturing cells with an automatic apparatus, what is supplied into a clean interior of the culture apparatus from the external are mainly cells and culture vessels. It is necessary to supply one or more culture vessels to culture cells inside the culture apparatus into the interior of the culture apparatus with being kept the clean environment. Techniques related to this one are widely developed in delivery of wafers in semiconductor production, and it is thought the method of preventing dust from the external by double doors or air flow. For example, it is disclosed in JP Patent Publication No. 2001-39537A. 
         [0008]    Nevertheless, techniques disclosed in JP Patent Publication No. 2002-262856A and JP Patent Publication No. 2001-39537A do not provide the best measure for solving important issues in cell culture. Thus, when culturing a cell, the contamination of cultured cells by dust, bacteria, and viruses which exist inside the air or with a human body poses a severest issue. So, it is the most important to control their quality. Therefore, we must carry out all steps generally called cell culture such as cell extraction, processing, and production under aseptic conditions, manipulate never to enter contaminants, and record its history. 
         [0009]    For performing culture and processing of cells, it is necessary that the skillful technician who wears dustproof clothing works in the CPC (Cell Processing Center) which is certified in GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) and is the large-scale culture institution given sterilization treatment in the whole facility. In industrialization, this has been a serious obstruction to productivity and cost. Then, the development of the automatic culture apparatus is demanded to develop the automatic culture apparatus which performs quality maintenance by performing the operation of the level equalled to a skilled technician in the environment where those who are the largest pollution sources are eliminated in processes as much as possible with automation technology, and performs cell culture with a culture vessel in high cleanliness. 
         [0010]    In an interior of the culture apparatus, it is possible to shut off the interior from the external except supply of cells and culture vessels to keep the internal state clean, by providing an ultraviolet lamp as same as a clean bench and continuing to supply clean air through a HEPA filter and so on. 
         [0011]    Then, it is necessary to put the culture vessel, which contacts the cells from the external in the culture apparatus with maintaining the cleanest state so that dust and bacteria may never enter into the interior. Moreover, it is necessary to take out the cells cultured inside the culture apparatus with maintaining the clean state inside the culture apparatus, then, to lessen the sharp temperature change, and to move it to an operating room or a processing facility keeping the same state. 
         [0012]    The present invention was made in view of such the present circumstances, and provides the apparatus which can connect culture vessel and the interior of culture apparatus sterilely, can take out the sterile culture vessel after culturing the cells, and can achieve reduction of environmental stress such as temperature. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0013]    In order to solve the above-described issues, the present invention provides the culture vessel box which has a first slide door and stores one or more culture vessels. This culture vessel box can keep internal temperature and humidity constant, and can keep the environment clean by sending clean air into the interior of the culture vessel box to make the interior into positive pressure. Furthermore, it is possible to carry this box since a handle is attached. The culture apparatus is equipped with a second sliding door with a motor, a storing chamber of the door, and a mount for placing a culture vessel box, and a culture vessel box is placed in a predetermined position on the mount. At that time, such construction that the first slide door and the second slide door are stuck on the basis of guides provided in the doors is adopted, which makes it possible to have both slide doors slide integrally with confining dust and bacteria which exist in air by providing a resin material with good adhesiveness on each adhesive surface of both the first and second slide doors. Furthermore, it is enabled to exclude bacteria and dust even if they invade from the external through a gap or the like by controlling the air flow to evacuate the storing chamber of the moved slide doors with a fan at the time of connection, to make the storing chamber into negative pressure and make an interior of the culture apparatus and the culture vessel box into positive pressure. Thereby, it is possible to provide the apparatus which can deliver culture vessels in the clean environment where the open air does not enter and the environment with small temperature change. 
         [0014]    That is, the culture system according to the present invention comprises a culture vessel box which has the containing section for containing at least one culture vessel, a first door section which enables to carry in and out the culture vessel, a culture apparatus which has sections for culturing cells internally, and a second door section which enables to carry in and out the culture vessel, and driving means for opening and closing the first and second door sections at the time of connection of the culture vessel box, characterized in that an open air contacting portion of at least one of the first and second door sections has adhesive raw material, and when the culture vessel box is connected to the culture apparatus, the first door section of the culture vessel box and the second door section of the culture apparatus stick with the adhesive raw material. 
         [0015]    The culture apparatus according to the present invention to perform cell culture is comprised of the section to connect a culture vessel box which has the section for containing at least one culture vessel, a first door section which enables to carry in and out the culture vessel, the section to culture cells, a second door section which enables to carry in and out the culture vessel, and door drive means to open and close the first and second door sections at the time to connect the culture vessel box inside the culture apparatus. That is characterized in that an open air contacting portion of at least one of the first and second door sections has an adhesive raw material, and when the culture vessel box is connected to the culture apparatus, the first door section of the culture vessel box and the second door section of the culture apparatus stick with the adhesive raw material. 
         [0016]    Furthermore, the culture vessel box according to the present invention to be connected to a culture apparatus for performing cell culture is comprised a vessel containing section for containing at least one culture vessel, a door section which enables to carry in and out the culture vessel, and a connecting section for connecting the culture vessel box to the culture apparatus. That is characterized in that an open air contacting portion of the door section has an adhesive raw material and, when the culture vessel box is connected to the culture apparatus, the door section of the culture vessel box and a door section of the culture apparatus stick with the adhesive raw material. 
         [0017]    In addition, the air cleaning method according to the present invention is to keep air inside a storing chamber and a processing chamber clean when the storing chamber to store the processing object and the processing chamber for performing predetermined processing to the processing object are connected. So, that has at least one of open air contacting portions in doors of connecting sections of the storing chamber and the processing chamber having an adhesive raw material. That is characterized by a step of raising a door of the storing chamber and a door of the processing chamber integrally after the storing chamber is connected to the processing chamber, and a step of executing carrying-in/-out of the processing object after the doors of the storing chamber and the processing chamber are opened. 
         [0018]    Furthermore, another culture system according to the present invention is characterized by comprising a culture vessel box which has a vessel containing section to contain at least one culture vessel, a first door section which enables to carry in and out the culture vessel, a culture apparatus which has a cell culture section to culture cells, a second door section which enables to carry in and out the culture vessel, connection detecting means of detecting that the culture vessel box and the culture apparatus are connected, means driving door for opening and closing the first and second door sections at the time to connect the culture vessel box, and means to control air flow of operating when the culture vessel box is connected. 
         [0019]    Further features of the present invention will become apparent by the following Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments and accompanying drawings. 
         [0020]    According to the culture system of the present invention, it is possible to connect a culture vessel and an interior of a culture apparatus sterilely and to take out the sterile culture vessel after culturing cells, and to achieve reduction of environmental stress, such as temperature. 
     
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0021]      FIG. 1  is a general view of culture system to be constructed by connecting culture vessel box  10  to culture apparatus  20 , according to the embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0022]      FIG. 2  is a diagram illustrating construction of the culture vessel box  10  which has one or more culture vessels inside and can be carried; 
           [0023]      FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating construction of the culture apparatus  20  which has culture chamber and culture vessel manipulator etc. and can perform a series of operations to culture cells; 
           [0024]      FIG. 4  is a conceptual diagram illustrating a state before connecting the culture apparatus  20  with the culture vessel box  10 , about a culture system according to the embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0025]      FIG. 5  is a conceptual diagram illustrating a state after connecting the culture apparatus  20  and culture vessel box  10 , about a culture system in an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0026]      FIG. 6  is a conceptual diagram illustrating a state that two doors  60  (sticking culture vessel door  11  and apparatus door  21 ) are opened, about a culture system in an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0027]      FIG. 7  is a structural diagram of the culture vessel manipulator  50  to move the culture vessel  40  in the culture apparatus  20 ; 
           [0028]      FIG. 8  is a conceptual diagram illustrating a state to move the culture vessel  40  with the culture vessel manipulator  50 , about a culture system in an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0029]      FIG. 9  is a top view illustrating a state to move the culture vessel  40  with the culture vessel manipulator  50 , about a culture system in an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0030]      FIG. 10  is a conceptual diagram illustrating a state of each internal air flow in the culture vessel box  10  and culture apparatus  20  before connecting, about a culture system in an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0031]      FIG. 11  is a conceptual diagram illustrating a state of an air flow inside the system after connecting the culture vessel box  10  to culture apparatus  20 , about a culture system in an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0032]      FIG. 12  is a block diagram illustrating a culture system in an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0033]      FIG. 13  is a flowchart to describe the operation of a culture system in an embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0034]    Hereafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with referring to drawings.  FIG. 1  is a general view at the time to connect a culture vessel box  10  to a culture apparatus  20  which especially expresses features in the present invention,  FIG. 2  is a structural diagram of the culture vessel box  10 ,  FIG. 3  is a structural diagram of the culture apparatus  20 ,  FIGS. 4 and 5  are schematic diagrams to connect the culture vessel box  10  to the culture apparatus  20 ,  FIG. 6  is a schematic diagram to open and close a door of the culture vessel box  10  (hereafter, the vessel box door  11 ), and a culture apparatus door (hereafter, the apparatus door  21 ),  FIG. 7  is a schematic diagram of the culture vessel manipulator  50 ,  FIGS. 8 and 9  are schematic diagrams regarding movement of the culture vessel  40 , and  FIGS. 10 and 11  are diagrams regarding the internal air flow. 
         [0035]    In  FIGS. 1 ,  2 , and  3 , we describe the construction of the culture vessel box  10  and the culture apparatus  20 . Here,  FIG. 1  is a side view at the time to connect the culture vessel box  10  in  FIG. 2  to the culture apparatus  20  in  FIG. 3  and join the vessel box door  11  to the apparatus door  21 . 
         [0036]    First, we describe the construction of the culture vessel box  10  in  FIG. 2 . One or more culture vessels  40  are storable in the interior of the culture vessel box  10 . There is the vessel box door  11  to slid to one direction in a side of the culture vessel box  10 , and it is possible to take in and out the culture vessel  40  to slid and open this door. A thin resin film  12  made from a resin material with good adhesiveness is stuck on the outside of the vessel box door  11 , and it has the convexoconcave such as the claw receptacle  19 . Furthermore, in order to make the interior of the culture vessel box  10  into positive pressure, the open air is blown into the interior by providing the fan  13  etc. in the culture vessel box  10 . At that time, a filter  14  made of fine cellulose material such as HEPA filter is put into the front of a blowing opening of the fan  13  to prevent dust and bacteria etc. in the open air from entering into the interior of the culture vessel box  10 . In order to make the fan  13  driven, the exchangeable battery  15  is installed in the culture vessel box  10 . Since the open air is blown into the interior, temperature inside the culture vessel box  10  is dependent on the open air. So, we install thermoregulator  16  such as thermal storage material, Peltier device, or rubber heater in the interior. When using the thermoregulator  16 , its electricity is supplied from the external battery  15  for the fan. Furthermore, the internal temperature change is lessened using insulation etc. on wall surfaces of the culture vessel box  10 . In addition, it is possible to move the culture vessel box  10  easily by grasping the handle  17  installed in the culture vessel box  10 . There is a trench  18  outside the bottom of the culture vessel box  10 , and it is used for position fixation in the case of connection with the culture apparatus  20 . In addition, when the guide  29  provided in the mount  28  of the culture apparatus  20  engages with this trench  18  as mentioned later, a position of the culture vessel box  10  is fixed. 
         [0037]    We describe the construction of the culture apparatus  20  in  FIG. 3 . There are the culture chamber  24  and the culture vessel manipulator (hereafter, the manipulator  50 ) to handle the culture vessel  40  inside the culture apparatus  20 . The culture chamber  24  keeps suitable for culturing the cells, to the environment in 37 degrees C., 5% of carbon dioxide concentration, and 100% of humidity. The cells is put into internal culture space of the culture vessel  40  and is cultured in the culture chamber  24 , The manipulator  50  moves the culture vessel  40  to the interior of the culture vessel box  10 , the culture chamber  24 , and the test area and the area seeding cells and exchanging in the interior of the culture apparatus  20 . In order to make the interior of the culture apparatus  20  into positive pressure, there are the filter  26  and the heater  27  for temperature control in the inside of the fan  25  similar to the fan  13  in the culture vessel box  10  to supply clean opening air to the interior. In the external of the culture apparatus  20 , there is the mount  28  to install the culture vessel box  10 , and there is the guide  29  to connect to the trench  18  in the bottom of the culture vessel box  10  to fix a position. the thin resin film  22  is stuck on the apparatus door  21  similarly to the vessel box door  11 , and further, there is the claw  23  so as to make the claw receptacle  19  of the vessel box door  11  suitable in order to fix a position in the case of adhesion of the apparatus door  21  and the vessel box door  11 . There is the door storing chamber  30  outside the culture apparatus  20 , and this stores the sticking two doors  60  when the culture apparatus  20  is connected with the culture vessel box  10  and the vessel box door  11  and the apparatus door  21  are stuck and slided together. When making two doors  60  slide, the motor  31  installed in the apparatus door  21  is used, and the weight  32  to reduce load of the motor  31  is connected to the apparatus door  21 . In addition, since the ultraviolet lamp  33  is included inside of this door storing chamber  30 , it is possible to sterilize the interior to keep it clean. Furthermore, the exhaust fan  34  is installed in the door storing chamber  30 , and it is used to perform exhaust  77  of internal air to the external at the time of connection. 
         [0038]    In  FIGS. 4 and 5 , we describe to connect the culture vessel box  10  to the culture apparatus  20 . In  FIG. 4 , we illustrate a state before connecting the culture vessel box  10  to the culture apparatus  20 , and, in  FIG. 5 , illustrate a state of the sticking two doors  60  after connection of two doors. 
         [0039]    In  FIG. 4 , the culture vessel box  10  is placed on the mount  28  which protrudes from an outside of the culture apparatus  20 . The guide  29  is provided in the mount  28 , a connecting position of the culture vessel box  10  and the culture apparatus  20  is fixed by aligning the trench  18  of the culture vessel box  10  with there, then, both of outer side faces of the vessel box door  11  and the apparatus door  21  are stuck, and, for the purpose to fix the connecting position of the adhesive surfaces, the claw receptacle  19  is installed in the vessel box door  11  and the claw  23  are installed in the apparatus door  21 . 
         [0040]    Furthermore, in  FIG. 5 , it is possible to improve cleanliness by enhancing adhesion of the vessel box door resin film  12  and the apparatus door resin film  22  which are provided in stuck faces to make it easy to slide together. Thus, since outsides of the vessel box door  11  and the apparatus door  21  are in contact with the open air, there is a high possibility of contacting with dust and bacteria. For this reason, since dust is confined in the interior at the time of adhesion of the doors by providing the vessel box door resin film  12  and the apparatus door resin film  22 , it is possible to secure cleanliness of the two doors  60  before and after the united two doors  60  slide. Although adhesion between the vessel box door resin film  12  and the apparatus door resin film  22  is strong, they can be removed as Post-it®. So, it is easy to detach the culture vessel box  10  after the end of culture. Then, since the internal temperatures of the culture vessel box  10  and the culture apparatus  20  are controlled with the thermoregulator  16  and the heater  27  almost equality, the culture vessel  40  after connection is movable without a temperature change. Thereby, it is possible to eliminate temperature stress to the cell inside the culture vessel  40 . 
         [0041]    In addition, by providing gas and humidity controllers (not illustrated) in each interior of the culture vessel box  10  and the culture apparatus  20 , after putting the culture vessel  40  into the culture vessel box  20  with keeping the cell&#39;s conditions after the end of culture, it enables to remove the culture apparatus  10  and move only the culture vessel box  20  with keeping a state of the cultured cell. 
         [0042]      FIG. 6  is a diagram to describe open and close of the two doors  60  after connecting the culture vessel box  10  to the culture apparatus  20 . The motor  31  connected to the culture apparatus door  21  makes the two doors  60  which are stuck and united open and close in sliding. At this time, the weight  32  is connected to the culture apparatus door  21  in order to reduce the load applied to the motor  31  to open and close in sliding. The slided two doors  60  enter into the door storing chamber  30 , and the two doors  60  are moved to a position which enables to move the culture vessel  40  with the manipulator  50 . In addition, about whether the two doors  60  have moved to the predetermined position, for example, a sensor to detect existence of the two doors  60  may be provided in at least either of the culture vessel box  10  or the culture apparatus  20 , an operation of the motor  31  may be controlled, or a door stopper may be provided inside the door storing chamber  30  to stop the motor  31  when the two doors  60  contact the door stopper. 
         [0043]    In this way, by making the two doors  60  stick, slide, open and close together, and move to the door storing chamber  30 , it enables to detach and attach the interiors of the culture vessel box  10  and the culture apparatus  20  with keeping the clean situation. In addition to the effect of the above-mentioned adhesion, by making exteriors stick and move to the door storing chamber  30 , it is possible to keep a high cleanliness of the connecting faces of the culture vessel box  10  and the culture apparatus  20 . In addition, by keeping the temperatures in both the culture vessel box  10  and the culture apparatus  20  at the almost same time, it is possible to lessen the temperature change of the culture vessel  40  after connecting the culture vessel box  10  to the culture apparatus  20 . 
         [0044]    We describe the movement of the culture vessel  40  at the time of connection, using from  FIGS. 7 to 9 . In  FIG. 7 , a whole structural diagram of the manipulator  50  is illustrated. The manipulator  50  in the culture apparatus  20  has such construction that it can operate in three axes of to-and-fro movement  51 , right and left movement  52 , and vertical movement  53 , and places the culture vessel  40  on the culture vessel mount  54  to move it. Thereby, the manipulator  50  moves the culture vessel  40  to the culture vessel box  10 , the culture chamber  24 , the test area, and the cell seeding and medium exchanging area. In  FIG. 8 , it is a side view of the connecting section, and, in  FIG. 9 , it is a top view near the connecting section. 
         [0045]    In from  FIGS. 7 to 9 , by the to-and-fro movement  51  and the vertical movement  53 , the manipulator  50  moves the culture vessel  40  placed on the culture vessel mount  54  to the interior of the culture apparatus  20 . When putting the culture vessel  40  into the culture chamber  24 , the manipulator  50  moves the culture vessel  40  by the right and left movement  52 , and moves the culture vessel  40  into the interior of the culture chamber  24  by the vertical movement  53 . By moving the culture vessel  40  from the interior of the culture vessel box  10  to various apparatuses inside the culture apparatus  20  and vice versa, it is possible to move the culture vessel  40  to the interior of the culture vessel box  10  from the various apparatuses inside the culture apparatus  20 . 
         [0046]    In  FIGS. 10 and 11 , we describe the movement of the air flow in each interior of the culture vessel box  10  and the culture apparatus  20  before and after connection. In  FIG. 10 , in the culture vessel box  10 , the open air which enters from the fan  13  becomes clean open air  70  through the filter into the interior of the box. The interior is made into positive pressure and the air flow  71  is passed from the gap to the external of the vessel box door  11 . In addition, also in the culture apparatus  20 , the clean open air is flowed into the interior and it is made into positive pressure, So, the air flow  73  from the gap in the vicinity of the apparatus door  21 , the air flow  74  passing through the door storing chamber  30  from the interior of the culture apparatus  20 , and the air flow  75  from the door storing chamber  30  to the external are passed. Thereby, it is possible to circulate the clean air given temperature control, to make the interior into positive pressure to prevent the open air from entering into the interior, and to keep the interior in the clean state. In  FIG. 11 , when the culture vessel box  10  and the culture apparatus  20  are connected, the exhaust fan  34  inside the door storing chamber  30  is operated for the internal air flow to be controlled, and the air flow  75  from the interior of the culture apparatus  20  to the door storing chamber  30 , and the air flow  76  from the culture vessel box  10  to the door storing chamber  30  are given exhaust  77  so that dust and bacteria of the two doors  60  which touch the open air may be given the exhaust  77  outside the culture apparatus  20 . When the two doors  60  are closed and the culture vessel box  10  is detached, the exhaust fan  34  is stopped to achieve movement of the air flow in  FIG. 10 . In addition, although the exhaust fan  34  is provided in the culture apparatus  20  in this embodiment, it is not limited to this, and it may be provided in a culture vessel box  10  or it may be provided in both the culture vessel box  10  and the culture apparatus  20 . 
         [0047]    Thus, it is possible to connect the interior of the culture apparatus  20  to the interior of the culture vessel box  10  with keeping the clean environment without touching the open air, to take the culture vessel  40  in and out easily, and to move the culture vessel  40 . 
         [0048]    In addition, the present invention enables to achieve the operations described above using a computer program.  FIG. 12  is a block diagram illustrating the construction of portions relevant to computer control in the culture system (the culture vessel box  10  and the culture apparatus  20 ) according to the present invention. Since the exhaust fans  13  and  25  always operate and are not computer-controlled in order to make interiors into positive pressure, they are removed from  FIG. 12 . In addition, the bus  108  connects with each block in  FIG. 12 .  FIG. 13  is a flowchart for describing an operation of the culture system. 
         [0049]    In  FIG. 12 , the CPU  101  controls whole operations of the culture system and becomes at least a main control component of the operations in the flowchart illustrated in  FIG. 13 . Thus, the CPU  101  reads control programs which is based on the flowchart of  FIG. 13  and is stored in ROM  102  at the time of the operation start of the system, develops it in RAM  103 , and controls a whole system. 
         [0050]    The exhaust fan  34  controls the air flow inside the system when the culture vessel box  10  is connected with the culture apparatus  20  as mentioned above. The motor  31  is driving means for making the two doors  60 , which open and close the connecting portion of the culture vessel box  10  and the culture apparatus  20 , rise and fall. The manipulator  50  carries in and out the culture vessel  40  at the time of opening of the two doors  60 . 
         [0051]    A two-door sensor  104  detects whether the two doors  60  open completely, and may be electric or mechanical as mentioned above. The connection detecting unit  105  detects whether the culture vessel box  10  is connected to the culture apparatus  20 , and this may also be electric or mechanical. 
         [0052]    The input unit  106  is, for example, for a user to instruct the carrying-in/-out of the culture vessel, and a keyboard and a mouse etc. correspond to this. The display unit  107  is, for example, for displaying that the culture system is working and instruction contents from a user etc., and CRT display and liquid crystal display etc. correspond to this. 
         [0053]    Next, we describe operations of the culture system having the construction as shown in  FIG. 12  using  FIG. 13 . In addition, the main operation unit is the CPU  101  unless otherwise specified. 
         [0054]    When it is detected that the culture vessel box  10  is connected with the culture apparatus  20  (step S 1301 ), the CPU  101  makes the motor  31  operate to raise the two doors  60  (step S 1302 ). Then, it is judged whether the two doors  60  open completely (step S 1303 ), and, if it completely opens, the processing will go to step S 1304 , and if it does not open completely yet, the processing will return to step S 1302  and continue to operate the motor  31 . As mentioned above, the opening of the two doors  60  is detected by the two-door sensor  104 , and a detection result is transmitted to the CPU  101 . 
         [0055]    If it is determined that the two doors  60  open completely at step S 1303 , the operation of the motor  31  will be stopped (step S 1304 ). In addition, if the culture vessel box  10  is connected with the culture apparatus  20 , the fan  34  will start to operate and the air flow will be controlled by evacuating the air inside the culture system (step S 1305 ). 
         [0056]    When the two doors  60  open completely and the air flow inside the system is also regulated, the manipulator  50  is operated and carrying-in/-out processing of the culture vessel  40  is executed (step S 1306 ). A user instructs whether the processing is carrying-in or carrying-out. Then, it is judged whether the carrying-out or carrying-in operation instructed by the user is completed (step S 1307 ), and when it is completed, the manipulator  50  is stopped, the motor  31  is operated to start to close the two doors  60  (step S 1308 ). Then, it is judged whether the two doors  60  are closed completely (step S 1309 ), and when it is determined that it closed completely, the motor  31  is stopped (step S 1310 ). 
         [0057]    When it becomes in this state, the culture vessel box  10  can be detached. When detachment is detected, the operation of the fan  34  which controls the air flow is stopped (step S 1311 ). 
         [0058]    The carrying-in/-out operation of the culture vessel is executed as described above. 
         [0059]    As described above, since the embodiment of the present invention can take in and out the culture vessel in the culture apparatus with eliminating contamination by dust as much as possible, and without cell stress by the temperature change with keeping cleanliness, and can carry the culture vessel after the end of culture as it is clean, it is expected that there are lot of needs and availabilities are much in industries, which requests high cleanliness, such as cell transplant and regenerative medicine. 
         [0060]    This embodiment provides the culture vessel box which has the first slide door and can arrange and store one or more culture vessels. This culture vessel box can keep internal temperature and humidity constant, and can keep the environment clean by further sending clean air into the interior of the culture vessel box to make the interior into positive pressure. Furthermore, it is possible to carry or move this box since the handle etc. is attached. The culture apparatus is equipped with the second sliding door with the driving force, the storing chamber of the door, and a mount for placing the culture vessel box, and the culture vessel box is placed in the predetermined position on the mount. At that time, such construction that the first slide door and the second slide door are stuck on the basis of guides provided in the doors is adopted, which makes it possible to have both slide doors slide integrally with confining dust and bacteria in open air by adhesiveness to provide the resin material with good adhesiveness on each adhesive surface of both the first and second slide doors. Furthermore, it is enabled to exclude bacteria and dust even if they invade from the external through the gap by controlling the air flow by evacuating the storing chamber of the moved sliding doors with the fan at the time of connection, to make the storing chamber into negative pressure, and making the interior of the culture apparatus, and the culture vessel box into positive pressure. Thereby, it is possible to provide the apparatus which can deliver the culture vessel in the clean environment where the open air does not enter and the environment with small temperature change. 
         [0061]    Then, according to this embodiment, it is possible not only to keep cleanliness to prevent dust or bacteria outside the slide door from entering into the interior by making sliding doors of the culture vessel box and the culture apparatus stick with the resin material with good adhesiveness in delivery of the culture vessel, but also to achieve space-saving by reducing drive systems, such as the motor, by opening the slide doors integrally. Furthermore, it is possible to easily perform attachment and detachment. Furthermore, it is possible to control an air flow in the connecting section of the culture vessel box and the culture apparatus by making the slide door storing space, which is the space to which the united sliding doors are moved, into negative pressure at the time of connection to make the interior of the culture apparatus and the culture vessel box into positive pressure, and to keep high cleanliness without entering the open air and portions, which touch the open air, into the interior. 
         [0062]    In addition, the culture vessel is moved to the interior of the culture vessel box after the end of culture, and it is possible to carry the culture vessel with keeping cleanliness and temperature inside the culture vessel box, after closing the sliding door. 
         [0063]    Furthermore, the present invention achieves the functions of the embodiment also with program code of software which achieves them. In this case, the memory medium which records the program code is provided to the system or the apparatus, and the computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or the apparatus reads the program code stored in the memory media. In this case, since the program code itself read from the memory medium achieves the functions of the above-mentioned embodiments, the program code itself and the memory medium, recording it, construct the present invention. As such the memory medium for supplying the program code, for example, floppy™ disk, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-R, magnetic tape, non-volatile memory card, or ROM is used. 
         [0064]    Moreover, it is also sufficient that the OS (operating system) etc. which is working on computer executes some or all of actual processing on the basis of instructions of the program code, and the functions of the embodiment mentioned above is achieved by the processing. Furthermore, it is also sufficient that, after program code read from the memory medium is written in memory on the computer, the CPU etc. of the computer executes some or all of actual processing on the basis of instructions of the program code, and the functions of the embodiment mentioned above is achieved by the processing. 
         [0065]    In addition, it is also sufficient that program code of software which achieves the functions of the embodiment is stored in memory means, such as hard disk or memory of the system or the apparatus, or the memory medium, such as CD-RW or CD-R by being distributed through the network, and the functions of the embodiment is achieved by the computer (or the CPU or the MPU) of the system or the apparatus reads and executes the program code stored in the memory means concerned or the memory medium concerned.