D-Attachment_No._01-Purchase_Description.pdf

Version 11-30-2016-1 FAR Part 11—Describing Agency Needs

PURCHASE DESCRIPTION

1. Statement of Need and Purpose: NCATS has made a substantial investment in robotic screening systems over a long period of time. Much of this equipment is costly so there is typically no budgetary option for redundant components. As this equipment gets old the chance of failure increases which can lead to system downtime. Redundant equipment is needed to mitigate potential downtime from equipment that has failed. The purpose of this purchase is to obtain redundant pieces of high throughput screening (HTS) equipment to help mitigate this risk by obtaining used brand-name only components of robotic screening systems.

2. Background Information and Objective: There are two robotic screening systems that are very similar in design and function to the two most heavily used screening systems at NCATS: the Kalypsys primary screening system and the Tox21 Robot. Both of these systems are comprised of robotic arms and all of the necessary platform equipment such as external guarding; robotic bases; electrical junction boxes and cabinets and a variety of other components. Associated with the core components of the system are the peripheral devices; ranging from liquid handlers, pin tools, plate incubators and compound storage carousels. All of these associated peripherals coupled with the robotic work cells are what comprise an automated screening system.

Various programs and labs within NCATS have been given the directive to perform different types of high throughput screens to evaluate some biological activity and to potentially develop new therapeutics or therapeutic combinations in some cases or in others to determine the relative toxicity of chemical compounds under test. To do this, a biological experiment is performed in the presence of hundreds of thousands of chemical compounds at various concentrations, requiring that millions of samples be tested for each experiment. This requires that these experiments be run in a high density well plate, to both minimize the total reagent volume used per experiment and to facilitate less total plates to be used to perform an entire assay. Typically, one experiment might consist of screening 500,000 compounds at 5 different total concentrations for a total of 2.5M samples. If this experiment is run using a 1536 well plate, meaning 1536 samples can be tested at a time, this requires nearly 1650 plates. The only way to accomplish handling this many well plates for an experiment is high throughput screening (HTS), which requires a high degree of robotic automation.

Over the past 10 years, NCATS has made a substantial investment in HTS systems, spending over $20M in automated equipment to run these experiments. The two most active systems at the center are the Kalypsys Primary Screening system that was put into service in 2005 and the Tox21 Robotic Screening system that was put into service in 2011. As these systems increase in age, it becomes increasingly imperative that they can be maintained and supported. Having the opportunity to purchase multiple used

Version 11-30-2016-1 FAR Part 11—Describing Agency Needs components that can be used as parts and to augment the capabilities of NCATS existing robotic platforms will help protect the large investment the government has made to fulfill the scientific mission of the institute.

3. Generic Name of Product: Robotic screening system components.

4. Purchase Description: The primary brand-name only components of these systems that will be valuable to have redundant pieces of equipment for existing systems at NCATS are as follows:

Item No. Item Description Manufacturer Quantity 1 ViewLux Plate Reader PerkinElmer One (1) 2 Acumen Plate Reader, model “Explorer” TTP Labtech One (1) 3 Stand-alone Pintool, model “KL-TR” Kalypsys One (1) 4 UR5 Robot Universal Robots One (1) 5 Mounting Table and Control System Wako Automation USA One (1) 6 PlatLoc Sealer, model “Microplate Sealer” Agilent One (1) 7 XPeel Peeler Brooks Automation One (1) 8 VSpin Centrifuge Agilent One (1) 9 MultiDrop Dispenser, model “Combi NL” Thermo Fisher One (1)

10 Mosquito, model “X1-HV” TTP Labtech One (1) 11 Mosquito, model “HTS” TTP Labtech One (1) 12 Ambistore, model “M” HighRes Biosolutions One (1)

All of these components are either exactly the same or a later generation of equipment will be used to act as enhancements or redundant pieces of equipment for NCATS existing robotic system.

Shipping, installation, and setup are to be included. The contractor shall ensure that all items are packaged, packed, and marked in accordance with best commercial practices to ensure safe and timely delivery at the intended destination.

5. Quantity: One (1) each of all items.

6. Delivery Date: Within thirty (30) days after receipt of order (ARO).

7. Delivery Location: All items shall be shipped FOB destination to the following address:

Attn: Sam Michael

NCATS/NIH

9800 Medical Center Drive Building B, Rm 1026 Rockville, MD 20850