High Content Screening System

Trade Agreement: NONE Tendering Procedures: Generally only one firm has been invited to bid Attachment: None Non-Competitive Procurement Strategy: Exclusive Rights Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No Vendor Name and Address: Molecular Devices, LLC 1311 Orleans Drive Sunnyvale California United States 94089 Nature of Requirements: NRC High Content Screening System - Charlottetown, PEI

31029-132731/A Logan, Elizabeth Telephone No. - (780) 497-3956 Fax No. - (780) 497-3510

1. Advance Contract Award Notice

An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.

2. Definition of the Requirement

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan has a requirement for the supply, delivery and off-loading of one (1) High Content Screening System.

The National Research Council of Canada is seeking a high content screening system with the flexibility and broad utility it requires to meet the needs of a rapid paced, multi-user, multi-application and multidisciplinary research environment.

3. Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities (Minimum Essential Requirements)

Major selection criteria for the system: 1. Able to perform long-term live cell imaging with minimum photo-toxicity (a phenomenon where imaging light causes harm to the cells being imaged) with a stable light source. 2. This requires large field-of-view imaging detector, high numerical aperture optics, on demand illumination system with multiple wavelengths and flexible auto-focusing system. 3. Must be capable of bright field imaging 4. Flexible optical system with user changeable and replaceable optical components Must support the highest possible optical resolution (at least 100X) for research needs - support of immersion lenses. 5. Must have a precise scanning stage which allows stitching several fields seamlessly for large field imaging of cells and tissue sections. 6. Must include environmental control for incubating cells, fluidics for changing media or adding compounds to cells and a robot for handling plates. 7. Must be capable of imaging slides using both fluorescent and colorimetric detection methods and be validated for Oil red O and H&E stained slides. Essential Criteria: 1. Wide field high content screening system. 2. External, upgradable by user and replaceable solid-state illumination source with; a. continuous wavelength covering a least 380-650nm b. 10,000 h life span or better c. light only used when illuminating sample d. alternative light sources available. 3. Large field TE cooled (0°C) scientific CMOS camera with 16bit dynamic range; a. 5.5MP chip or better b. Capable of exposures 2 sec or longer c. Noise 1.5e or less d. 100fps or better at fast digitization e. low noise slow digitization leading to 1:25,000 dynamic range or better f. 3 log dynamic range intensity detection or better 4. XYZ stage with a precision 100nm or less. 5. Bright field illumination compatible with fluidics and environmental options. 6. Able to perform online flat field illumination correction. 7. Capable of performing combined focusing with both software and laser reflection based focusing. 8. Adjustable field-of-view to focus on sample area most appropriate to the assay. 9. Environmental control for up to 6 days of live-cell imaging with both CO2 and temperature controls and supports medium changes with supplied fluidics station. 10. Customer changeable and replaceable filters requiring no tools. Supports both dry and immersion optics from 1 -100X and equipped with the following optics: a. 4X PLAN APO 0.20 NA b. 10X S PLAN FLUOR 0.3 NA c. 20X S PLAN FLUOR ELWD 0.45 NA d. 40X S PLAN FLUOR ELWD 0.45NA e. OBJECTIVE 60X Plan Fluor .085 NA f. OBJECTIVE 60X, S PLAN FLUOR EDWD 0.70 NA, CC 0.1-1.3MM g. OBJECTIVE 2X CFI PLAN APO 0.10 NA h. 11. Fluorescence filter sets for the following dyes: a. DAPI b. FITC/Alexa488 c. Rhodamine/TRITC d. Cy3 e. Cy5 f. Texas red g. RGB filters for colorimetric Imaging. 12. Software-controlled linear objective changer with protection for unselected objectives. 13. Robotics for plate loading with bar code reader which is integrated with the system for scheduling. 14. Supports a variety of multi-well plate types and slides, including thick or thin, glass or plastic and trans-well formats including low profile low volume assay plates. 15. Imager must support analysis of standard microscope slides in a robot compatible slide holder. 3 slide holder to be included. 16. Able to perform RGB imaging with slides in holders. 17. Imager must support colorimetric dyes such as Oil Red O and hematoxylin and eosin for imaging of histology slides. 18. Includes a digital confocal option to enhance contrast of images during acquisition, decrease exposure time and increase throughput while maintaining assay quality. 19. Automated acquisition and analysis of images for high throughput cell-based screening and analysis of slides. 20. Software controls both image acquisition and analysis. Image processing software must be compatible with 64-bit Microsoft Windows 7. 21. Enterprise-level database, for data management and image storage, automatically linking analysis results to original images, segmentation overlays and annotations, compatible with Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle platforms. 22. Environmental control which provides temperature, CO2 and humidity to the sample plate to maintain live cells in an incubator-like environment. g. Enables multi-hour/multi-day live cell time-lapse imaging. h. Mimics lab incubator conditions when premixed CO2 is supplied. i. Temperature control: 30-40°C ± 0.5°C. j. Humidity maintained above plate; evaporation