D Attachment 1 Purchase Description.pdf

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

PURCHASE DESCRIPTION

1. Statement of Need and Purpose:

The Rodent Behavioral Core (RBC) is a state-of-the-art research facility designed to provide NIH researchers the capacity to support NIMH and NIH in their behavioral research through facilitating research intitives by providing assistance in experimental design, training, execution, and analysis of behavioral neuroscience experiments.

2. Background Information and Objective: The National Institute of Mental Health Principle Investigator Dr. Yogita Chudasama, Chief of the Section on Behavioral Neuroscience and Director of the Rodent Behavioral Core (RBC) will need these items to provide instrumentation for the RBC. The RBC provides an invaluable service to NIMH and other insitutes by facilitating behavioral neuroscience experiments and supporting research initiatives across various domains supportin the NIMH and NIH mission. To this end, ethologically relevant tests are important for studying the behavior and cognition of rodents in a natural environment and help researchers understand the mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders and reduce animal stress. The Cambridge Phenotyping Smart-Kage system offers a novel, comprehensive testing unit that leverages artificial-intelligence and machine-learning technology to drive the assessment of behaviors in mice. This new system allows for comprehensive assessment of mouse behaviors in a home environment, whereby mice have access to a T-maze, novel-object recognition, operant conditioning, motor coordination and activity as well as food and water consumption. Through its innovative approach to home-cage testing, this product minimizes the need for any food and water restrictions, and it allows investigators to provide a comprehensive test environment for animals without utilizing any invasive testing methodology.

For large sample sizes, testing large numbers of animals on various testing paradigms can take weeks, and requires the coordination and availability of multiple testing systems. With this automated and integrated home-cage design, the Smart-Kage boxes would allow investigators to perform and acquire results for multiple cognition, motor, and affective levels of assessment simultaneously, minimizing the use of multiple pieces of equipment. Furthermore, the AI-driven technology facilitates automated tracking of animals their home-cage environment, which streamlines the data acquisition and analysis streamlining the experimental pipeline. These advances can help researchers in reducing manual errors, increasing reproducibility, and accelerating the pace of research.

There are currently no systems like this at NIH, and the acquisition of these boxes could catapult research output and ability in the institute to advance research objectives of utilizing a variety of testing underlying mechanisms of neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders in an ethologically relevant testing environment, minimizing the adverse effects of stress on behavioral tests. This system would allow for long-term testing with continuous data collection at a high sampling rate and automated cognitive and behavioral tasks, the Smart-Kage system enables researchers to conduct more accurate and comprehensive studies on rodents. Furthermore, the system is able of handling these large amounts of data and seamlessly transfer and securely store for analysis.

3. Generic Name of Product: Smart-Kage System for behavioral equipment with comprehensive cognitive, emotive, motor, and appetitive behavioral testing in a seminaturalistic environment with integrated artificial intelligence tracking and computing capabilities for the Rodent Behavioral Core of NIMH.

4. Purchase Description:

• Smart-Kage, quantity 10

• Software and PC, quantity 1

• Storage Server, quantity 1

• Shipping, Installation and Training, quantity 1

5. Salient characteristics

• The system must have the ability to control each cage through a microcomputer that collects both video and sensor data.

• The system must have the ability to wirelessly transfer the data to the main server and data storage device (NAS) to ensure that no data loss occurs in case of network disruption.

• The system must have the ability to process and analyze data through AI-based algorithms that combine video and sensor outputs, which is accessible for export for further analysis.

• The system must have the ability to offer long-term 24/7 video-based monitoring at 5Hz with automated weight monitoring and integrated ammonia measurements, ensuring precise and reliable data.

• The system must have the ability to utilize AI-powered software that streamlines the experimental pipeline and facilitates data analysis, leading to improved efficiency and reduced errors.

• System must have fully automated cognitive and behavioral tasks that include but not limited to novel object recognition, object-in-place recognition, T-maze with variable inter-trial intervals, double spatial alternation, water consumption, place preference learning, associative learning, light/dark preference, locomotion activity, and quiescence states.

• Must have fully automated water restriction using automated water supply system.

• Must offer a range of ethologically relevant cognitive and behavioral task including:.

o All devices must be connected in a private network. The main server’s operating system must be Linux Ubunto 22 o Must have the dimensions 40x 55 x 50 cm.

o Must incorporate open-top cages to enable either tethering for optogenetic an fiber photometry or future compatibility with ventilation systems.

• All of these salient characteristics and specifications must be incorporated into each standalone unit and accessible to the animal at any given time during experimentation.

6. Quantity: (10) Smart-Kage Boxes, (1) Software and PC, (1) Server, (1) shipping, and installation and training

7. Delivery Date: September 1, 2023 or 30 days post ARO

Ship to:

Rodent Behavior Core

NIMH

35A Convent Dr.

Bldg 35A Rm BD815 Bethesda MD 20892

8. Period of Performance: N/A

9. Option(s): N/A