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EP-3287516-B1 - PRODUCTION DEVICE FOR CULTURED-CELL PRODUCT

EP3287516B1EP 3287516 B1EP3287516 B1EP 3287516B1EP-3287516-B1

Inventors

  • KOIKE, TETSUO
  • TAKIMOTO, MASAHIRO
  • YAGI, Yoshiki

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20160303

Claims (4)

  1. An apparatus to produce cultured cell products, comprising: an incubator (2) configured to house cell culture vessels (1); an isolator (3) capable of maintaining its inside in aseptic conditions and configured to process the cell culture vessels conveyed from the incubator; and a pass box (4) capable of carrying, into the isolator, articles such as a plurality of types of containers including product containers and reagents which are used for subdividing and placing the cells cultured in the cell culture vessels, wherein the isolator comprises: an observation section (8) comprising first robot arms (6, 7) configured to move the cell culture vessels to an observation position so that the degree of growth of the cells in the cell culture vessels taken out of the incubator is checked; a processing section (13) provided continuously with the observation section and comprising second robot arms (10, 11, 12) configured to perform various processes to transfer the cells as a cell-containing liquid in the cell culture vessels that have a specified number of cells out of the cell culture vessels observed in the observation section into a large number of product containers carried in from the pass box; and an outlet (14) configured to allow the large number of product containers into which the cells have been transferred to be taken out from the isolator to the outside of the apparatus, wherein at least one first robot arm corresponds to the incubator and is configured to handle the culture vessels that are housed in the incubator, at least one second robot arm corresponds to the pass box and is configured to handle the articles and the reagents to be housed or that have been housed in the pass box, at least one second robot arm corresponds to the outlet and is configured to handle the product containers to be moved from the outlet to the outside of the isolator, and a first robot arm can directly deliver the articles to a second robot arm.
  2. The apparatus to produce cultured cell products according to claim 1, wherein the processing section comprises: a first transfer processing unit configured to transfer a cell-containing liquid housed in the cell culture vessels received from at least one first robot arm into a centrifuge tube, using at least one second robot arm; a separation processing unit configured to separate the cells and a liquid portion by subjecting the centrifuge tube to centrifugation using at least one second robot arm; and a second transfer unit configured to at least partially remove the liquid portion separated by the separation processing unit from the centrifuge tube, put a preservative solution into the centrifuge tube, and transfer a specified number of cells within the centrifuge tube into the large number of product containers while maintaining such a state, using at least one second robot arm.
  3. The apparatus to produce cultured cell products according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the processing section comprises a medium-replacing unit configured to replace a culture medium in the cell culture vessels taken out of the incubator using at least one second robot arm, wherein the medium-replacing unit is configured to open caps provided on the cell culture vessels received from at least one first robot arm to dispose of the culture medium in the cell culture vessels, supply another culture medium into the cell culture vessels, and put the caps on the cell culture vessels to return the cell culture vessels to at least one first robot arm, using at least one second robot arm.
  4. The apparatus to produce cultured cell products according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein at least one second robot arm is configured to open and close screw caps provided on the plurality of types of containers.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION FIELD The present invention relates to a production apparatus of cultured cell products configured to mass-produce cultured cell products formed by subdividing cultured cells into a large number of containers. BACKGROUND In recent years, cell culture is performed using tissues and cells of various sites of human body, fertilized eggs, or the like, and the cultured cells have been put to practical use for regenerative medicine. In the cell culture, it is important to prevent contamination of cells or the like by bacteria or the like during the culture. Therefore, an automatic culture apparatus that enables the culture of cells using a robot within a housing having a configuration that can maintain thereinside in aseptic conditions has been already proposed (for example, Patent Literature 1). The aforementioned automatic culture apparatus is configured by arranging, within the housing, an incubator configured to house a culture vessel in which the cells are cultured, a refrigerated cabinet configured to store chemicals, a centrifuge, various containers such as a liquid medicine container and a culture vessel necessary for the culture, and one operation robot configured to handle these components. Currently, regenerative medicine has been in the limelight, and therefore it is desired to culture a large amount of cells that can be used for regenerative medicine or the like so as to mass-produce cultured cell products. CITATION LIST Patent Literature Patent Literature 1: JP 2009-291104 A EP1659169A1 describes a culture treating apparatus and autoculturing apparatus preventing a contamination into culture containers. EP1650291A1 describes an automatic cell cultivation apparatus utilizing autoclave sterilization, wherein the apparatus includes an operation unit. WO2011130865A2 describes an automated cell culture arrangement including a tool module configured to act upon or to monitor the contents of a bioreactor and being movable relative to at least one closed cell culture module. EP2363255A1 describes an isolator for cell culture. Katsumi Nakajama et al., Journal of the Society for Bioscience and Bioengineering, vol. 92, No. 9, 2014, pages 473-478 describes an automated cell processing machine for use in regenerative medicine applications. SUMMARY Technical Problem In the aforementioned configuration of Patent Literature 1, the operation robot merely performs a process to simply culture cells. Therefore, the cultured cells need to be taken out by human hands. Therefore, there is an inconvenience that the mass production is impossible, and the adoption of regenerative medicine is not widespread. The present invention has been devised in view of the problems described above, and an object thereof is to provide an apparatus to produce cultured cell products which can produce a large amount of cultured cell products by culturing a large amount of cells and can subdivide the large amount of cultured cells. Solution to Problem The present invention relates to an apparatus to produce cultured cell products having the features of claim 1. An apparatus to produce cultured cell products according to the present invention includes: an incubator configured to house cell culture vessels, an isolator capable of maintaining its inside in aseptic conditions and configured to process the cell culture vessels conveyed from the incubator, and a pass box capable of carrying, into the isolator, articles such as a plurality of types of containers including product containers and reagents which are used for subdividing and placing the cells cultured in the cell culture vessels, wherein the isolator includes: an observation section including first robot arms configured to move the cell culture vessels to an observation position so that the degree of growth of the cells in the cell culture vessels taken out of the incubator is checked; a processing section provided continuously with the observation section and including second robot arms configured to perform various processes to transfer the cells as a cell-containing liquid in the cell culture vessels that have a specified number of cells out of the cell culture vessels observed in the observation section into a large number of product containers carried in from the pass box; and an outlet configured to allow the large number of product containers into which the cells have been transferred to be taken out from the isolator to the outside of the apparatus, wherein at least one first robot arm corresponds to the incubator and is configured to handle the culture vessels that are housed in the incubator, at least one second robot arm corresponds to the pass box and is configured to handle the articles and the reagents to be housed or that have been housed in the pass box, at least one second robot arm corresponds to the outlet and is configured to handle the product containers to be moved from the outlet to the outside of the isolator, and a first ro