Fluid handling and environmental management for automated 3-D cell culturing

This paper reports on the development of three subsystems to automate the process of three dimensional cell culturing. Conventional cell culturing is a manual process in which cells are grown in a controlled environment and eventually harvested for testing purposes. The large amount of human labor necessary in this process creates opportunity for human error that limits cell culture quality. Taking steps towards automation involved the design and implementation of three subsystems: one for environmental management; another for fluid handling; and a third for controls and communication. Following development of the subsystems, a series of tests were performed to validate functionality and provide a basis for complete integration of all systems. Complete automation of the process will solve several challenges encountered during traditional cell culturing including tight control of the growth environment, eliminating contamination, maintaining many cultures simultaneously, and maintaining consistency and quality.