Attachment_01_Purchase_Description.pdf

PURCHASE DESCRIPTION

1. Statement of Need and Purpose: The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) needs a Federated Modular Reaction Screening Lab for its ASPIRE program.

2. Background Information and Objective: With the A Specialized Platform for Innovative Research Exploration (ASPIRE) initiative, NCATS seeks to accelerate preclinical drug discovery by integrating automated synthetic chemistry, high- throughput biology and information technologies to help scientists study unexplored biologically active chemical space.The overall goal of ASPIRE is to enable real-time translational science by combining expertise in chemistry, biology, pharmacology, automation and AI/ML to provide a rapid decision-making platform to advance lead molecules to the clinic. This platform was originally intended to help with the opioid crisis as part of the NIH HEAL initiative, but is now also a core component of NCATS' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This overall platform will require a modular framework where different tasks are executed as part of an experiment. An example of this is small molecules could be synthesized at one module, and then brought to an analytical chemistry module for a quality control check, and then eventually brought to a module for storage and/or plating for use in a future experiment. That could then lead to an experiment where a high throughput biological assay is run using that molecule on a different module.

All of these tasks assume that there is reliable transportation of samples between the modules, so one of the most critical components of the entire platform is the transportation system itself. This acquisition is to procure the transportation platform for the ASPIRE program. This platform is of critical importance because without it the entire program would fail. It has to perform millions of successful movements of labware per year; making this a foundational component for ASPIRE.

3. Generic Name of Product: Modular Reacting Screening System

4. Purchase Description: Modular Reaction Screening System with the following capabilities:

• Provides automated, standardized, digital, accelerated reaction screening. The system’s modules perform reaction preparation, liquid and solid dispensing, solid reformatting, reaction processing, synthesis and work-up, and storage.

• Provides a critical platform to optimize and improve the execution of chemical reactions being conducted by both medicinal chemists throughout NCATS as well chemistry being developed and standardized for automated execution. In

ATTACHMENT 1 Solicitation Number 75N95023Q00653 addition, such a system should be capable of being coupled to systems being developed to directly test reaction products in biological assays in early hit development.

• Provides a platform that can be used to scale down chemical synthesis while increasing throughput and accelerating hypothesis testing by shortening synthesis and testing cycles while reducing the cost per data point generated because of lower demand for expensive and/or scarce substrates. The intent is to build the platform in a highly modular fashion which will allow development to be carried out in stages but will allow early investment to achieve useful, fully de-bugged implementation which can be generating results early in the development cycle of the fully functional platform.

5. Salient Characteristics: The salient physical, functional, or performance characteristics are as follows:

• Provides system level continual monitoring of laboratory environment, instruments, inventory, and data.

• Performs reaction preparation including:

o µg-to-mg solid picking and dispensing o µg-to-mg solid reformatting o mg-to-g solid dispensing o mg-to-g and µL-to-mL liquid handling o gravimetric and volumetric liquid handling

• Performs reaction screening and synthesis and work-up.

• Performs storage for approximately 200 MTP racks.

• Includes auditing, reporting, and data management tools.

• Customized screening plate programming.

• Provides for addition of solids and powders by weight during processing.

• Performs overhead gravimetric dispensing directly into reactors, vials, plates, for accurate, reproducible and scalable work on laboratory scale.

• Performs gravimetric pick and decision dispense of solids from µg to mg.

• Robotically sealable racks for unattended reaction preparation and reaction screening.

6. Quantity: One (1) modular system.

7. Delivery Date: Within 6-12 months after receipt of order (ARO). The Contractor may propose alternative delivery schedule and multiple shipments if necessary.

Delivery shall be FOB Destination. The Contractor shall provide all warranty, shipping, and handling. The equipment shall be delivered between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Rockville, MD local prevailing time, Monday through Friday, except federal holidays. Delivery shall be made to

Attn: Sam Michael

NIH / NCATS

9800 Medical Center Drive Building B Rockville, MD 20850