BEIJING – China has created the world’s first medical instrument that caninduce, culture and screen stem cells automatically.

The instrument was approved on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.

The key components of the instrument include an incubator, and six majorsystems of liquid handling, online microscopic observation, clone picking,petri dish delivery and equipment control. The equipment makes possible theautomation and standardization of stem cells induction, and is thereforemore effective, cost-efficient and reliable compared with manual inductionand culturing of stem cells.

“From sampling to storage, the entire process can be completedautomatically, especially the process of changing culture solutions. Thecells are just like us. We eat three meals a day. The culture solutions forthe cells need to be changed every 24 hours,” said Pei Duanqing, directorof Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health of the Chinese Academy ofSciences, the developer of the instrument.

Stem cells can self-renew or multiply while maintaining the potential todevelop into other types of cells. They can become cells of the blood,heart, bones, skin, muscle, brain or other body parts. They are valuableresearch tools and might in future be used to treat a wide range ofailments.

“Now hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have been put to wide use. Thehematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has saved many lives. Manyleukemia patients, for instance, survived with the help of HSCT,” Pei added.