Patent ID: 8383395

Claim:
A cell culture apparatus comprising: a culture vessel which cultures cells; a culture medium storage unit which stores a culture medium supplied to the culture vessel; a platform on which the culture vessel is placed, wherein the platform includes a non-elevating part which is a portion of the platform on which the culture vessel is placed, and at least one area-changing part which is another portion of the platform on which the culture vessel is placed, wherein the at least one area-changing part is movable upward and downward such that the non-elevating part of the platform and the at least one area-changing part of the platform are arrangeable on different planes, and wherein a culture area of the culture vessel is changed by moving the at least one area-changing part; an image acquiring unit which acquires images of the cells in the culture vessel; and a control unit which determines a culture state of the cells from the images of the cells acquired by the image acquiring unit and controls a culture operation to be carried out based on the determination, wherein the control unit controls the platform to change the culture area of the culture vessel.