JPH05268938A - Culture device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a culture device having high circulating ability of culture solution. CONSTITUTION:This culture device is equipped with an injection pump 3 to pour a culture solution from an auxiliary tank 2 to a culture tank 1 and a discharge pump 4 to exhaust the culture solution in the culture tank 1 to the auxiliary tank 2. The injection pump 3 and the discharge pump 4 are regulated by a control device 6 in an integrated way. The culture device can be miniaturized and flow rate of the culture solution and the amount of the culture solution can be readily regulated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a culture device for growing organisms while controlling the environment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art 1970
Biotechnology that greatly advanced in the 1980s and 1980s
Now, in the 90's, the achievements are being put to practical use in many fields. In this way, it becomes important to put into practice the technology that was performed only in the laboratory. ”
Device ”.

A culture device is one of such "devices". The culture device is a device for breeding and culturing organisms while precisely controlling culture conditions. In this culture device,
Nutrients and carbon dioxide that are given to living organisms are often supplied to living organisms through a culture solution. Needless to say, these nutrients and the like are consumed and waste products are discharged as the organism grows and reproduces. Therefore, it is necessary to discharge the culture broth and the like as necessary. Further, there are cases in which the influence of the liquid surface height, the liquid amount, etc. of these culture liquids on organisms is investigated.

For this reason, conventionally, the height of the liquid surface has been adjusted by bending the tube for discharging the culture solution into an inverted U shape and adjusting the height position of the bent portion. That is, when it is desired to raise the liquid level, the height of the bent portion is increased. vice versa,
When it is desired to lower the liquid or drain the liquid, the bent portion is lowered.

For example, in the example shown in FIG. 5, the injection pump 3 is used only when the culture solution is injected from the auxiliary tank 2 into the culture tank 1. When the culture tank 1 is discharged to the auxiliary tank 2, the amount of the culture solution in the culture tank 1 and the discharge amount are controlled only by changing the height position of the bent portion 100.

[0006]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional technique, the discharge amount of the culture solution or the height of the liquid surface is changed by changing the height position of the U-shaped tube. In the culture device which is intended to be used in the clean bench, which has a limited size, the adjustment range of the discharge amount is small.

In order to secure a flow rate above a certain level,
Thicker pipes would suffice, but this led to a larger device.
Therefore, it was not possible to put the culture device in the clean bench to perform the work. Even when it is used outside the clean bench for practical use, there is a problem that it becomes difficult to control the flow rate adjustment by moving the U-shaped pipe or the like due to the thickening of the pipe. Therefore, there is a limit to the application to a large-capacity culture device.

[0008] Further, the force for discharging the culture medium is gravity, and since this gravity has a constant magnitude at all times, it is difficult to quickly replace the culture medium. Further, since the discharge rate varies depending on the amount of the culture solution existing in the culture tank 1, it is difficult to control both the amount of the culture solution in the culture tank 1 and the discharge rate. It was an obstacle.

The present invention is a culture apparatus which is a simple method, but is capable of freely controlling the culture liquid such as the height of the liquid surface of the culture liquid and promptly injecting and discharging the culture liquid. The purpose is to provide.

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made to achieve the above object, and in one aspect thereof, a culture tank for holding a culture solution and culturing an organism using the culture solution, There is provided a culture device comprising: an injection means for injecting a culture solution into the culture tank, and a discharge means for forcibly discharging the culture solution in the culture tank.

In this case, an auxiliary tank for storing the culture solution is provided,
The injection means may inject the culture solution stored in the auxiliary tank into the culture tank, and the discharging means may inject the discharged culture solution into the auxiliary tank.

It is preferable to have control means for controlling the injection means and / or the discharge means.

A culture solution amount sensor for detecting the amount of the culture solution in the culture tank is provided, and the control means controls the injecting means and / or the discharging means based on the detection result of the culture solution amount sensor. Is preferred.

The discharge means is preferably a pump.

[0015]

The control means controls the injection means and / or the discharge means while referring to the detection result from the culture solution amount sensor, and injects the culture solution into the culture tank. Similarly, the culture solution is discharged from the culture tank.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the culturing apparatus of this embodiment comprises a culture tank 1 for actually culturing a culture organism X on a carrier M, and an auxiliary tank 2 for storing an extra culture solution. It is connected by a pipe 9 and a discharge pipe 10. Then, an injection pump 3 and an exhaust pump 4 are arranged in the injection pipe 9 and the exhaust pipe 10, respectively, so that the culture solution is circulated between the culture tank 1 and the auxiliary tank 2. Is becoming A filter 5 for removing waste products discharged from the cultured organism X due to the culture is installed in the discharge pipe 10 on the downstream side of the discharge pump 4.

Both the injection pump 3 and the discharge pump 4 are constructed so that the culture solution will not be contaminated due to their operations. Further, in the present embodiment, the one whose flow rate can be accurately controlled is used. Incidentally, as such a pump, those already commercially available for chemical and medical purposes can be applied as they are. An example of a pump applicable to this embodiment is shown in FIG.

The pump comprises a tube retainer 50, a tube 52, a shaft 56, an eccentric cam 54, and a motor (not shown) for rotating the eccentric cam 54 via the shaft 56. Consists of.

The tube retainer 50 has a circumferential surface inside. A tube 52 is arranged along the circumferential surface. A shaft 56 is provided at a position substantially corresponding to the center of curvature of the circumferential surface of the tube retainer 50, and the eccentric cam 54 is rotatable about the shaft 56. Further, the tip portion 53 of the eccentric cam 54, which is farthest from the axis, is close to the tube retainer 50, and the culture solution cannot pass through the portion where the tip portion 53 is present. Therefore, depending on the motor, the eccentric cam 5
By rotating 4 the culture solution can be sent out. That is, the tube 50 is sandwiched by the tip of the cam 54 and the tube retainer 50, and the position where the tube 50 is sandwiched is moved,
Sending out the culture solution. This type of pump is controlled by controlling the voltage applied to the motor.

Another type of pump is shown in FIG. This pump uses a permanent magnet whose surface is treated with a fluororesin as the piston 60, and the electric current is passed between the coil A and the coil B to move the piston 60 in the left and right direction in the cylinder 66 to remove the liquid. It is something to send.
There are two valves (valve 62, valve 6 so that the liquid does not flow backward).
4) is provided. In addition, the movement of the piston 60 reduces the pressure in the cylinder 66,
In order to prevent the movement of 0, a part of the delivered culture solution is returned to the cylinder. This makes the movement of the piston 60 smooth. Since this type of pump does not involve operations such as crushing the tube, there is no risk of tube deterioration even after long-term culture. Control of this type of pump is performed by adjusting the interval at which the current is applied to the coils A and B. This can be achieved by configuring the control device 6 to be described later including an oscillator, counting the pulses output by the oscillator with a counter, and passing a current with a predetermined count value. The circuit in this case is shown in FIG. It is also possible to use the output of the computer instead of the counter and turn on / off the state of the output at a predetermined timing.

The operation of both the infusion pump 3 and the evacuation pump 4 is controlled by the control device 6 so that the culture solution can be injected and exhausted in a desired amount at a desired time. .. The control device 6 is configured by a microcomputer or the like, and by giving the control program in advance, the control of the complicated culture solution can be performed unattended. Since the injection pump 3 and the discharge pump 4 are controlled separately, it is possible to operate only the injection pump 3 or conversely only the discharge pump 4. It is also possible, of course, to operate the both in cooperation with each other so that the infusion pump 3 and the evacuation pump 4 can maintain the same amount of the culture solution conveyed. Further, the control device 6 is also inputted with a detection result of a liquid level sensor 7 which will be described later, and is configured to be able to control the injection pump 3 and the discharge pump 4 while monitoring the liquid amount. The specific configuration of the control device 6 is not particularly limited and may be a configuration that does not include a microcomputer or the like.

The liquid surface sensor 7 is for detecting the height position of the liquid surface of the culture liquid in the culture tank 1. The liquid level sensor 7 is configured to be able to detect the liquid level at any time in order to enable the control device 6 to perform fine control. However, it is also possible to simply detect whether or not the height reaches a certain level. The specific configuration of the liquid level sensor 7 is not particularly limited as long as it does not affect the culture solution or the culture organism.

The operation will be described.

When it is desired to increase the amount of culture solution in the culture tank 1, the injection amount by the injection pump 3 is controlled so as to exceed the discharge amount by the discharge pump 4. On the contrary, when it is desired to reduce the amount of the culture solution in the culture tank 1, the discharge amount by the discharge pump 4 is controlled to exceed the injection amount by the injection pump 3.

In this case, the change of the amount of the culture solution in the culture tank 1 depends only on the difference between the injection amount by the injection pump 3 and the discharge amount by the discharge pump 4, and the values of the injection amount and the discharge amount themselves are not changed. It doesn't depend. Therefore, the culture tank 1
It is possible to control the flow rate, flow rate, etc. of the culture solution flowing through the culture tank 1 separately from the control of the culture solution amount in the above. For example, when the injection amount is 5 and the discharge amount is 5, the amount of the culture solution in the culture tank 1 does not change. Further, even when the injection amount is 10 and the discharge amount is 10, the amount of the culture solution in the culture tank 1 does not change. However, the former and the latter have different flow velocities or flow rates of the culture solution in the culture tank 1.

In the embodiment described above, it is easy to automate the injection and discharge of the culture solution. Therefore, it is possible to easily automate the control of the factor depending on the amount of the culture solution and the like. Further, in the above embodiment, the culture solution is forcibly discharged by a pump or the like and does not utilize gravity or the like, so that even if a part of the discharge mechanism should fail, the pump will not run away. It is also possible to prevent the situation where all the culture solution is discharged.

Since the capacity of the pump can be easily adjusted by an electric signal, the relationship between the injection amount and the discharge amount of the culture solution can be easily adjusted. Therefore, for example, it is possible to change only the flow rate or the flow rate of the culture solution without changing the position of the liquid surface at all. The ability to change only specific parameters (in this case, flow rate and flow velocity) is particularly effective when investigating which factors have the greatest influence on the growth of living organisms. Further, it is also possible to efficiently discharge the waste products by increasing only the flow rate of the culture solution. In this case, since the filter 5 for filtering the waste is arranged on the downstream side of the discharge pump 4 and pressure is applied to some extent, the circulation of the culture solution is not hindered by some clogging.

Further, in the above embodiment, since the pump is used to forcibly discharge and inject the culture solution,
The flow rate can be adjusted over a wide range without changing the size of the pipes and the control thereof is easy. In addition, it can be easily applied to a large-scale culture device on the premise of practical application beyond the laboratory level.

Furthermore, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the direction in which the culture solution is allowed to flow can be easily reversed, and the degree of freedom in the experiment is increased, and it is difficult to remove the culture solution by simply flowing it in a fixed direction. The ability to remove dirt and the like adhering to 1 and the like also increases.

Also, with regard to the technology of the pump and the like required in the above-mentioned embodiment, the one already completed and commercially available can be used as it is, so that there is no cost disadvantage.

In the above embodiment, the injection pump 3 is used.
And the discharge pump 4 and the injection pump 3 as one control device 6
Although they are collectively controlled by the above, separate dedicated control devices may be provided separately. Further, the control device may be provided in only one of them.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The flow rate can be adjusted in a wide range while suppressing the size of the circulation system of the culture solution in the culture device, and it can be applied to a large device. Moreover, the operation is easy. Furthermore, the automation of control is easy, and various conditions can be easily created. The device is also simple, which is advantageous in terms of cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an example of a pump that can be used in this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an example of a pump that can be used in the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a pump control circuit.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: culture tank, 2: auxiliary tank, 3: injection pump, 4:
Exhaust pump, 5: filter, 6: control device, 7:
Liquid level sensor, 9: injection pipe, 10: discharge pipe, 50: tube holder, 52: tube, 53: tip portion, 5
4: Eccentric cam, 56: Shaft, 100: Bent portion, M:
Carrier, X: Cultured organism

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A culture tank for holding a culture solution and culturing organisms using the culture solution, an injection unit for injecting the culture solution into the culture tank, and forcibly discharging the culture solution in the culture tank. A culturing apparatus comprising: 2. An auxiliary tank for storing a culture solution, wherein the injection means is for injecting the culture solution stored in the auxiliary tank into the culture tank, and the discharging means is the discharged culture solution. The culture device according to claim 1, wherein the culture device is injected into the auxiliary tank. 3. A control means for controlling said injecting means and / or said discharging means.
Alternatively, the culture device according to item 2. 4. A culture liquid amount sensor for detecting the amount of culture liquid in the culture tank, wherein the control means controls the injecting means and / or the discharging means based on a detection result of the culture liquid amount sensor. The culture device according to claim 3, wherein 5. The culture device according to claim 1, wherein the discharging means is a pump.