D_Attachment 1 - Purchase Description.pdf

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

PURCHASE DESCRIPTION

Brand Name or Equal: Aurora Flow Cytometer UV laser

1. Statement of Need and Purpose: The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and

Stroke (NINDS) requires a brand name or equal Aurora Flow Cytometer UV laser to be added to an existing Cytek Aurora Flow Cytometer.

Completing the outfitting of this recently acquired instrument will maximize the versatility of fluorophore choice and the numbers of markers that can be analyzed. Specifically, by installing a 355nm UV laser, the complement of lasers and ‘spectral unmixing’ technology will expand NINDS’ phenotyping of CSF and blood-derived cells to 40 markers in one sample. This is especially powerful when analyzing cerebral spinal fluid, which often contains a minimum number of cells and only allows for one sample total.

This powerful tool will greatly facilitate NINDS’ investigations into neuro-immune pathological mechanisms.

2. Background Information and Objective: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal focal point for health research. Its mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and apply that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability.

The NINDS, which is an Institute within the NIH, seeks to reduce the burden of neurological disease through supporting and conducting basic, translational, and clinical research on the healthy and diseased nervous system, fostering the training of investigators in the basic and clinical neurosciences, and seeking better understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of neurological disorders.

NINDS Division of Intramural Research, led by the Office of the Clinical Director, is especially focused on neuro-immune-related pathologies in the CNS. In human studies, these pathologies can be examined using cells from the spinal fluid and from the blood.

Projects that have benefitted from this technology in our research group include HIV-1 neurocognitive complications driven by regulatory proteins of HIV-1, endogenous retrovirus involvement in ALS, as well as HTLV-1, HSV, and SARS-CoV2-focused studies. Examining neuro-immunology and virological complications of these illnesses, as well as those of patients with undiagnosed diseases demands a wide field of view of cellular processes involved.

Conventional flow cytometry has served these studies well, allowing phenotyping in the range of 12-18 colors. The Aurora without the additional laser allows up to 24 colors.

The addition of the UV 355nm laser increases this flexibility to 40 colors. The unique technology minimizes the errors inherent in using closely related fluorophores. The immunophenotyping core facility that NINDS has collaborated with in the recent past also uses this instrument and upgrading our instrument allows our research group to apply this ‘deep phenotyping’ methodology to our many studies.

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

3. Product Information:

• Generic Name of Product: 355 nM UV laser

• Brand Name or Equal Benchmark: Cytek Aurora Flow Cytometer UV laser

• Product Description: 355nM flowcytometry laser to fit a Cytek Aurora

• Manufacturer: Cytek Biosciences

4. Salient characteristics The system must equal or exceed the following salient physical, functional, or performance characteristics:

• 355nm UV laser that expands the Aurora to 40 color acquisition and analysis in a compact instrument and a wide dynamic range, without the need to remove or re-configure inner workings of the instrument for full functionality.

• Vacuum fluidics and low background autofluorescence of the instrument, which allows safe and sensitive measures of human samples while better than tripling our current ability to combine cellular markers in single reads

• Allows resolution of dim-staining markers on the low end and extended positivity on the bright end of the range, thus minimizing errors excluding relevant data on either end of the spectrum.

• Must be compatible with Cytek Aurora Flow Cytometer

5. Quantity: One 355nm laser upgrade

6. Delivery Date: Contractor shall deliver all equipment within 30 days after receipt of order to the following location:

NIH Building 10/Room 2N104 10 Center Drive Bethesda, MD 20890

Equipment shall be shipped in coordination with the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR). Delivery must be FOB destination and include inside delivery.

7. Warranty Terms: Contractor shall warrant all equipment against defects in material, fabrication, and workmanship for a minimum of 12 months from the date of acceptance.