2_JA 2122946 SPT Labtech Dragonfly.pdf

Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition at or Below the Simplified Acquisition Threshold

Project Title: SPT Dragonfly Liquid Handler

I . Identification of the agency and contracting activity

DHHS, NIH, NIAID, VRC

Address of the requesting lab/office: 9 West Watkins Mill Road, Gaithersburg MD

II. Description of the project, and supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs

A. Project Background: The Vaccine Immunology Program (VIP) has assembled functional groups that engage in basic and translational B cell immunobiology research (including high throughput automated immunoglobulin and transcriptome analyses) in addition to standardized end-point analyses for clinical trials. The goal was to bring these functional groups under a single program in order to facilitate the coordinated development and deployment of state-of-the-art technologies and analyses, which can be utilized effectively for vaccine discovery, early development and testing of clinical products.

In recent years, the VIP-research group has focused upon in-depth analyses of VRC influenza vaccine trials, specifically the complex immunobiology characterizing the B cells recognizing influenza HA-stem region. The VIP continually extends its capabilities and technologies in order to better understand the immune response elicited by products developed at the VRC- NIAID-NIH and beyond. Overall, the goal of the Program is to improve the understanding of T- and B-cell immunobiology to further efficacious vaccination strategies directed towards HIV, Influenza and other potentially preventable diseases.

B. Description of the supplies or services to be purchased The VIP needs a liquid handler that is compatible with the current SPT LabTech equipment. The Dragonfly meets all of the increasing needs of the lab. This liquid handler has what the lab needs:

• highly reliable positive displacement dispensing

• high speed (1,536 plate fill in <2 min)

• low dead volume (which preserves samples)

• disposable tips (for zero cross-contamination)

• broad dynamic range (20,000:1 (200nl – 4ml))

• non-contact dispensing

• positive displacement (agnostic of liquid class, no clogging or blocking of nozzles)

III. Identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition 41 USC 253(c)(1) a n d FA R P ar t 13 .1 06 -1 (b ) : Only one responsible source

IV. Demonstration that the proposed contractor(s) unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

A. Name and address of the proposed contractor(s)

SPT LABTECH

Melbourn Science Park, Melbourn, Royston, Herts SG8 6HB, UK Phone: +44 1223 627 555 Email: sales@sptlabtech.com

B. Describe why only the requested supply/service will meet the government’s needs This instrument is needed to streamline the VIP’s research efforts while enhancing data integrity and improving efficiency. Each of dragonfly’s disposable tips has its own individual piston, not an air gap or system liquid, offering true positive-displacement, non-contact dispensing with no risk of cross-contamination. This provides accurate, repeatable and highly reliable, wide dynamic range dispensing, every time, irrespective of liquid viscosity.

Also, the dragonfly is ideal for processing single cells pre-sorted into plates. Miniaturization of sample preparation protocols with the dragonfly results in a dramatically reduced cost per cell, which is essential for large-scale single cell studies. This instrument also works with small volumes (200nL-4mL) which does not exist for any other liquid handler.

C. Describe why only the proposed contractor is capable of providing the requested supply/service SPT Labware is the only vendor that can provide this instrument. There is no other liquid handler commercially available that uses positive displacement at such a small volume (200nL). Also, we have another SPT instrument in the lab and we can link our protocols to the Dragonfly so that the machines can run side by side. Purchasing another liquid handler from another vendor would result in major delays to the VRC’s COVID research efforts. Continuity of vendors for liquid handling purposes is a must to ensure that our experimental results are not influenced by new variables.

https://www.sptlabtech.com/applications/molecular-biology-and-genomics/single-cell-genomics https://www.sptlabtech.com/applications/molecular-biology-and-genomics/single-cell-genomics https://www.sptlabtech.com/applications/molecular-biology-and-genomics/single-cell-genomics https://www.sptlabtech.com/applications/molecular-biology-and-genomics/single-cell-genomics