Hironaga Matsubara

Automatic Selection System of Monoclonal Antibody Producing Cells

Recently monoclonal antibodies are being applied to many areas of life science. Their importance is increasing more and more. But, the selection of cells that produce monoclonal antibodies is a labor-intensive operation. So the authors succeeded in developing the automatic system. Cells which have fused and distributed on culture plates are put in this system. This system cultivates these cells with a 12 channel multipipet and optical pH sensor (HAT selection). After that, this system detects the production of antibody of cells with ELIS A apparatus, and then does cloning cells with an image-processed cell counting unit (limiting dilution). Finally, cloned cells which produce monoclonal antibodies are put in a 24-well culture plate and taken out from this system. At any time in these processes, users can input or rearrange schedules and procedures, and can easily get a cell-count, ELIS A results, and past records of each culture well.

An instrument for liver function testing using an optical sensor

As a medical application of optoelectronic technology, an instrument to measure liver function was developed. For the estimation of liver function, Indocyanine green (ICG) is widely used as a tracer clinically. A description of an instrument for noninvasive measurement of ICG clearance and the results of the clinical evaluation of about 470 patients are presented. In in vivo measurement, to solve the problem of changing blood volume, the authors propose a novel calibration method before ICG injection. Using this instrument, called an ICG clearance meter, the value of ICG tests correlated well with the values calculated from the conventional blood sampling methods.<<ETX>>