Cell cultures are widely used in scientific research, biomedicine and
industry. When culturing, it is important to maintain certain
conditions, including the concentration of cells. Monitoring of the
culture growth and cell counting is an urgent task for the optimization
of technological processes. Most existing methods require sampling from
a culture flask. This procedure is time-consuming and associated with
the risks of contamination. We present a device able to monitor the
growth of cells number in a suspension non-invasively. The device uses a
laser beam that pass through the culture flask and measures the
intensity of scattered light as a function of coordinate along the beam.
This optical scheme allows one to obtain accurate results for both high-
and low-scattering samples. We constructed the wireless portable
prototype for monitoring of cell culture growth directly in the
incubator and demonstrated the applicability of the device for Jurkat
cells and e.coli bacteria.