Patent ID: 7906324

Claim:
An incubation apparatus, comprising: a removable base segment; a reservoir residing on the removable base segment, the reservoir having a first chamber and a second chamber separated by a gas permeable, hydrophobic membrane such that the membrane forms a water-tight seal between the first chamber and the second chamber; a cell growth container residing on the removable base segment, the cell growth container having a chamber for growing cells, the cell growth container further having at least one transparent surface allowing viewing of cells within the chamber through the transparent surface, wherein the cell growth container is gas tight except for paths that permit media from the reservoir to enter and exit the cell growth container so that introduction of gas to the cell growth container is prevented except for the media; a pump external to the removable base segment, the pump coupled to the cell growth container and the reservoir such that the media is pumped from the second chamber of the reservoir to the chamber of the cell growth container; and a mixer external to the removable base segment, the mixer having a plurality of gas containers coupled to a plurality of valves, respectively, the plurality of gas containers including at least a first gas container containing a first gas and a second gas container containing a second gas, the plurality of valves including at least a first valve coupled to the first gas container and a second valve coupled to the second gas container; a first temperature control element; a first temperature sensor residing on the removable base segment; and control logic configured to automatically control the first and second valves such that a desired ratio of at least the first gas and the second gas is mixed by the mixer thereby forming a gas mixture, the control logic further configured to automatically control the first temperature control element based on the first temperature sensor such that the media is heated by the first temperature control element to a specified temperature range, wherein the mixer is coupled to the reservoir such that the gas mixture from the mixer enters the first chamber of the reservoir, passes through the membrane, and diffuses into the media in the second chamber of the reservoir.