US 5,985,653 AGranted

Incubator apparatus for use in a system for maintaining and growing biological cells

AssigneeAastrom Biosciences, Inc.

InventorsR. Douglas Armstrong, James Maluta, David W. Roecker

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Abstract

An incubator apparatus is disclosed, for conditioning a portable cassette such that biological cells contained within a cell growth chamber of the cassette are maintained and grown ex vivo, without exposing the cells to the external environment. The incubator apparatus includes first and second receptacles sized and configured to removably receive first and second casings, respectively, of the portable cassette, and it further includes first and second temperature regulators that regulate the temperatures of the respective first and second receptacles to prescribed values. In addition, the incubator apparatus includes a mechanical interface that is engaged by the portable cassette's first and second casings when they are received in their corresponding receptacles, and this mechanical interface controls the transport of growth media and a gas through the cassette's cell growth chamber, without exposing the cell growth chamber to the external environment. The incubator apparatus also is configured to retrieve data from, and to store data to, an updatable memory device carried on the cassette.

Claims10

Dependent claims

An incubator apparatus for use in combination with a portable, self-contained cell growth cassette, separate from the incubator apparatus and configured to maintain and grow biological cells ex vivo, wherein the portable cassette includes a first casing that defines a cell growth chamber configured to carry a quantity of biological cells and growth media and further includes a second casing that defines a growth media container, wherein the growth media container and the cell growth chamber are part of a closed, sterile system, and wherein the incubator apparatus functions to regulate the temperatures of the first and second casings of the cell growth cassette and to control the transport of growth media from the media container to the cell growth chamber, the incubator apparatus comprising:

a first receptacle sized and configured to removably receive the first casing of the portable cassette;
a second receptacle sized and configured to removably receive the second casing of the portable cassette;
a first temperature regulator that regulates the temperature of the first receptacle to a first prescribed temperature;
a second temperature regulator that regulates the temperature of the second receptacle to a second prescribed temperature;
and
a mechanical interface to which the portable cassette's first and second casings can be removably coupled, when such casings are received in the respective first and second receptacles, wherein the mechanical interface is configured to controllably transport growth media from the media container to the cell growth chamber, without operator intervention and without exposing the closed, sterile system to the external environment.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.