Thrive Bioscience, Inc.

Methods for the image processing of cells are disclosed for the purpose of segmenting cell colonies for further processing to determine confluence, counting and morphology.

Method and apparatus for displaying cultured cell wherein the image can be smoothly moved into and out of focus and can be zoomed in and out and panned.

A method and apparatus for calibrating an imaging system provides a program stored in the imaging system having a graphical user interface and providing a plurality of tools to align hardware components of the imaging system including cameras for imaging cell culture vessels received by the imaging system and having a tool for providing a video image output of a cell culture vessel received in the imaging system.

A plaque detection method and apparatus wherein at least one processor is programmed to receive above focus images to detect the presence of live cells without detecting the lysed cell materials, receive below focus images wherein virtual dark regions exist which are similar to cell shadows as seeds in a segmentation process and use contours around each resulting shape to obtain a subset that are more likely to be part of the cell population to define a cell map. A distance map is created in which each pixel value is the distance of that pixel from the nearest pixel of the cell map and the distance map is thresholded to create a first image of the places which are relatively far from the cells a second image with a smaller distance threshold to get an image that mimics the edges of the cells.

A plaque detection method and apparatus wherein at least one processor is programmed to receive above focus images to detect the presence of live cells without detecting the lysed cell materials, receive below focus images wherein virtual dark regions exist which are similar to cell shadows as seeds in a segmentation process and use contours around each resulting shape to obtain a subset that are more likely to be part of the cell population to define a cell map. A distance map is created in which each pixel value is the distance of that pixel from the nearest pixel of the cell map and the distance map is thresholded to create a first image of the places which are relatively far from the cells a second image with a smaller distance threshold to get an image that mimics the edges of the cells.

A cell culture incubator has an incubator cabinet with an internal chamber for the incubation of cells in one or more cell culture vessels and a door opening from an external environment to the internal chamber. At least two imagers configured for imaging the cells are within the internal chamber and a manipulator for manipulating the cells in the one or more cell culture vessels is within the internal chamber. A cell culture vessel transfer device moves the one or more cell culture vessels between the at least two imagers within the internal chamber and a controller is configured for controlling the cell culture transfer device to move cell culture vessels between the at least two imagers.

A method for identifying a cell line during incubation of the cell line, wherein a database of growth condition data for a cell line is provided. The database is shared in a network. Current growth condition data for a cell line being incubated is obtained and the current growth condition data for the cell line being incubated is compared to previously obtained corresponding growth condition data for the cell line in the database to indicate whether current growth condition data for the cell line is consistent with the previously obtained corresponding growth condition data for the cell line.

In some aspects, the invention relates to selectively permeable cell culture vessel storage containers and their methods of use. In some embodiments, the containers comprise a gas-permeable membrane that is selectively impermeable to water vapor.

A method and apparatus for measuring cells and cell confluence includes an imager for imaging a z-stack of bright field images and a processor for selecting a best focus bright field image at a z position of f microns in the z-stack of images. In the manner described herein, the processor selects a bright image n microns lower in the z-stack than the best focus bright field image and a dark image m microns higher in the stack than the best focus bright field image. The processor applies edge detection to the dark image to obtain an edge image and subtracts the edge image from the dark image and the processor applies an adaptive threshold to the bright image to create a mask and uses the adaptive thresholded image as seeds to evaluate the edge image to find cell candidates.

Aspects of the present invention relate to a networked cell culture incubator and to methods for operating such an incubator. In one aspect, the cell culture incubator includes a network interface for communicating with a source of parameter data utilized successfully by other incubators. The incubator receives appropriate parameter data and conducts the incubation process as prescribed by the parameter data so as to provide an improved environment for cell culture growth. The incubator may share its own parameter data with the data source for use by other incubators. The incubator and data source may share other forms of data as well.