Collabaration:

This project is a collaboration between the Pattern Recognition Lab, ASTRUM IT GmbH, PreSens GmbH and the Institute of Bioprocess Engineering.

Description:

Monitoring of cell cultures is mostly done with manual measurements at few timepoints. Intermediate states have to be inferred from these known time points. In addition, these measurements often interfere with the cultures, e.g., when samples are taken, which might lead to unexpected effects especially for sensitive cell types.

The goal of COSIR is, to develop a compact system for continuous non-invasive monitoring of cell cultures. It is supposed to acquire data about the current cell growth and state without taking samples or other external influence.

The system will contain different optical and chemical sensors and acquisition devices. The acquired signals will be processed with innovative image processing methods, to automatically generate quantitative as well as qualitative information (for example cell density or oxygen concentration).

It will be universally applicable for expansion of animal cells, media optimization or toxicity tests. The main application will be the pharmaceutical development of new drugs, in research laboratories as well as in toxicity testing.