Microbial contamination of cell culture is a major problem encountered both in academic labs and in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industries. A broad spectrum of microbes, including mycoplasma, bacteria, fungi, and viruses are the causative agents of cell-culture contamination. Unfortunately, the existing disinfection techniques lack selectivity and/or lead to the development of drug-resistance, and more importantly there is no universal method to address all the microbes. Here, we report a novel, chemical-free visible ultrashort pulsed laser method for cell-culture disinfection. The ultrashort pulsed laser technology inactivates pathogens with mechanical means, a paradigm shift from the traditional pharmaceutical and chemical approaches. We demonstrate that ultrashort pulsed laser treatment can efficiently inactivate mycoplasma, bacteria, yeast, and viruses with good preservation of mammalian cell viability. Our results indicate that this ultrashort pulsed laser technology has the potential to serve as a universal method for the disinfection of cell culture.

中文翻译：

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使用可见超短脉冲激光对细胞培养物进行选择性光子消毒


细胞培养物的微生物污染是学术实验室和生物技术/制药行业遇到的主要问题。包括支原体、细菌、真菌和病毒在内的多种微生物是细胞培养物污染的病原体。不幸的是，现有的消毒技术缺乏选择性和/或导致耐药性的产生，更重要的是没有通用的方法来处理所有微生物。在这里，我们报告了一种用于细胞培养物消毒的新型、无化学物质的可见超短脉冲激光方法。超短脉冲激光技术通过机械手段灭活病原体，这是传统制药和化学方法的范式转变。我们证明，超短脉冲激光治疗可以有效灭活支原体、细菌、酵母和病毒，并能很好地保留哺乳动物细胞的活力。我们的结果表明，这种超短脉冲激光技术有潜力成为细胞培养物消毒的通用方法。