ReTiCeMo - Real-Time Monitoring Of Cell Proliferation

Synopsis

Human cells are grown in tissue culture for a variety of applications. The process of growing cells is quite tedious and requires checking the cells every day under the microscope to monitor the growth and any possible microbiological contamination. The cells are maintained in a medium close to physiological pH and a small amount of phenol red is added as an indicator. Waste products produced by the cells will slowly decrease the pH of the medium turning the solution orange and then yellow. Medium should be change before it turns into yellow colour as this is indicative of overgrowth. Also, some micro-organisms such us bacteria or yeast, can contaminate the culture and cause a change in pH, leading to a rapid change in colour from red to yellow. This change in colour implies a change in absorbance from 570nm (red) to 443nm (yellow) that could be exploited as a surrogate for cell growth.

Team members:

Maria Vias, Roberto Canales, Stephane Ballereau

Software?

Explain functionality of software components (if any) as concisely as possible, developers should be able to figure out how your project solves their problem by looking at the code example. Ideally, this should be pseudo code or an abstract graphical representation of your code e.g entity relationship diagram. Consider adding a screenshot of your User Interface.

Hardware?

Explain how the hardware components (if any) of your project function as concisely as possible, including a short description of fabrication and assembly. Component suppliers and part numbers should be provided separately in a bill of materials, in a 'Hardware Folder'.

Installation, Maintenance and Testing Guide?

Provide instructions on usage, describe a test scheme and show how to run the tests with code and hardware configuration examples with some representative results.