Statement of Need.pdf

STATEMENT OF NEED (SON)

1.0 TITLE

Bruker timsTOF fleX MADLI 2

2.0 BACKGROUND

The acquisition of a Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MSI) system is necessary to meet the scientific and operational requirements of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). MSI technology provides a critical capability that supports the agency’s core mission in the biomedical and environmental health sciences. It enables high-resolution, spatially resolved molecular analysis directly from tissue sections, a functionality that cannot be achieved through conventional mass spectrometry workflows.

The NIEHS requires an advanced MSI platform to support ongoing and future research in spatial metabolomics, lipidomics, and exposomics. In spatial metabolomics and lipidomics, MSI allows for direct visualization and localization of metabolites or lipids within biological tissues, providing insight into metabolic heterogeneity and tissue-specific responses that are otherwise obscured in homogenized samples. This spatially preserved data is essential for elucidating mechanisms of disease progression, understanding metabolic regulation, and identifying region-specific effects of therapeutic or environmental interventions.

Equally important is the application of MSI to exposomics, which involves comprehensive analysis of environmental exposures and their biological impacts. The Institute’s research in this area focuses on identifying tissue-specific accumulation and transformation of environmental chemicals and linking these findings to molecular pathways of toxicity. MSI is the only platform that allows researchers to spatially localize xenobiotics and their metabolites in situ, while simultaneously capturing endogenous biochemical disruptions. This is critical for understanding how environmental toxicants interact with biological systems and for identifying molecular signatures of exposure. Such data directly informs risk assessment, regulatory decision-making, and the development of public health interventions.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) requires a Mass Spectrometry

Imaging (MSI) system that offers a high-duty cycle, high sensitivity, ion mobility capabilities, and high spatial resolution (approximately 5 microns) to meet the demanding analytical needs of its research programs. A high-duty cycle is essential to maximize ion utilization and data acquisition efficiency, enabling rapid and comprehensive molecular imaging without sacrificing throughput.

High sensitivity is critical for detecting low-abundance metabolites, environmental toxicants, and endogenous signaling molecules that may be present at trace levels, particularly in small or spatially restricted tissue regions. The ability to perform ion mobility measurements adds an additional dimension of molecular separation based on collisional cross section (CCS), improving the discrimination of isobaric or structurally similar compounds and enhancing molecular annotation confidence. Finally, high spatial resolution (~5 microns) is necessary to resolve fine anatomical features and molecular heterogeneity at or near the cellular level, which is particularly important in neurobiological tissues and for identifying localized biochemical effects of environmental exposures.

Together, these capabilities are essential to achieve the NIEHS’s scientific goals in exposomics, spatial metabolomics, and systems toxicology.

3.0 TYPE OF ORDER

This is a:

• Firm Fixed-Price Purchase Order

• Severable

4.0 PRODUCT FEATURES/SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS

Fragmentation-based molecular annotations are the gold standard in high-confidence biomarker identification using mass spectrometry. The new imaging parallel reaction monitoring parallel accumulation serial fragmentation (iprm-PASEF) workflow integrates CCS-enabled MALDI Imaging of lipids with a targeted MS/MS imaging approach that allows spatial fragmentation and analysis of multiple targets in a single acquisition. The workflow includes a fully integrated pipeline within our software ecosystem to generate accurate identifications with spatial fidelity.

The following product features/characteristics are required for this requirement:

• High performance integrated dual ESI/MALDI source UHR-OTOF system.

• Integrated MALDI setup, including smartBeam 3D™ laser (10 kHz in MALDI-mode, 1 kHz in MALDI-2-mode) and a second post-ionization laser (1 kHz)

• Switching between post-ionization and normal MALDI mode is fully integrated in the MS control software

• Changing between ESI and MALDI operation is also automated via MS software control.

• TIMS analyzer, high-performance quadrupole, high transmission collision cell for CID, temperature controlled and compensated TOF analyzer, electronics, integrated syringe pump, data system with digitizer, WIN10 Operating-System, LCD-Display

• The microGRID technology adds highest accuracy and robustness beyond mechanical limitations to MALDI imaging experiments. MALDI sample stage position feedback combined with adaptive laser position correction enables accurate and robust results down to

5 μm pixel size.

• Spraying booth, XY stage, MTP positioning plate, automated drawer, HTX proprietary heated nozzle, M3+ Control Software with PumpScripts feature, Windows PC, solvent delivery module with 8-way valve and 1 ml glass syringe, solvent bottles and necessary fittings.

• Nano-Coating Sublimation Chamber. Includes vacuum sealed chamber with ultra-fast ceramic heater, and versatile conductive cooling top. Includes one HTX Matrix Wafer, one magnetic sample holder (4 glass slides capacity) and one cooling liquid container.

Temperature Controller which includes external power supply, US and European Cords, and input for heater and thermocouple connectors, 220V/110V Transformer and Oil-free vacuum pump.

• MTP Slide-Adapter II, a package of 50 IntelliSlides, one Slide Scanner, one license key for flexImaging software, and one network license key for software package SCiLS.

• Comparative analysis for uncovering discriminative m/z-markers, component analysis for extraction of underlying trends and patterns, classification models for categorization of unlabeled samples, workflow for absolute quantitation for MS imaging data. Extends the

SCiLS API by methods for writing data into SCiLS files.

• High performance workstation for MALDI imaging and large metabolomic datasets, including Z6 workstation, Xeon W3225, 8-core processor, Win10 64bit operating system

LTSC 2019, 2 TB HDD, 1 TB M.2 SDD, 128 GB RAM.

• Powervar Security Plus II UPS

• Lab Nitrogen Generator

• Complete Warranty Extension is a warranty extension for the intensively operated instruments. It includes unlimited on-site repair visits, spare parts as well as wear and tear parts such as lasers, detectors etc. A detailed overview of the services covered can be found in the attached product description.

4.1 DELIVERY / INSTALLATION

Alan K. Jarmusch

National Institutes of Health National Inst of Environmental Health Sciences

111 TW Alexander Dr

Research Triangle Park

Durham, North Carolina, 27709

Items shall be delivered within 10 weeks of purchase order award.

4.3 TRAINING

• Essential operator training included in system sale for 2 persons.

• Application training course