BACKGROUND:
Notice is hereby given by the University of Ottawa of the intent to enter into a contract with ACEA Biosciences, Inc. to purchase an xCELLigence® Real Time Cell Analyzer Single Plate (SP) System, for the purpose of measuring and monitoring cell adherence, viability, and morphology in a real-time, label-free manner in cell differentiation and bacterial infection assays.
PROCESS:
Suppliers that consider their equipment functional, successfully tested, readily available and fully compliant to the ACAN minimum requirements may submit, in writing, a statement of specifications to the contact person identified in this Notice, on or before the closing date of this Notice. In the statement of specifications, the supplier must unequivocally demonstrate how their equipment, at minimum, equals, or exceeds the stated requirements.
If no other supplier submits a statement of specifications, on or before the closing date of this Notice, the competitive requirements of the University of Ottawa will be considered having been met. Following notification to any suppliers not successful in unequivocally demonstrating that their statement of specifications equals or exceeds the requirements set out in this Notice, the contract may then be awarded to the pre-identified supplier.
INTENDED USE:
One of the goals of our research program is to study the functions and phenotypes of innate immune cells in response to relevant stimuli or invading bacterial pathogens. The xCELLigence® Real Time Cell Analyzer will enable the study of how cells differentiate and function in response to genetic or pharmacological manipulations. Key to this is the capability of the instrument to measure quantitative data on the adherence, morphology, and viability of the cells (including bacteria cells) in real-time and using a label-free detection approach. Specifically, the instrument will be used as follows:
Quantitatively measure the adherence and proliferation of monocytes/macrophages in response to
cytokines/growth-factors (over extended incubation period – up to 10 days)
Screening compound libraries for cytotoxicity and ability to induce cell death of bacteria infected cells
Screening compound libraries for effect on bacteria biofilm formation
Obtain cell morphological data that correlate directly with quantitative adherence data
FUNCTIONALITY:
The equipment must conform to the following Minimum Requirements:
1.1 The system must support a broad range of research applications, including cell proliferation, cytotoxicity, cell adhesion, RTK, GPCR, RNAi functional assays, natural killer cell activity, ADCC, CDC, viral neutralizing antibody detection, and bacterial toxin neutralizing antibody detection.
1.2 The system must produce quantitative data without any labels or probes.
1.3 The system must produce quantitative data in real-time over extended periods of incubation (> 1 month)
1.4 The system must be able to gather single-well data in at least 150 milliseconds for each well, or under 16 seconds for a 96-well plate.
1.5 The system must measure electrical impedance in real-time in 96-well culture plates.
1.6 Electrical impedance measurements must be transformed by data analysis software to produce quantitative readout (Cell Index).
1.7 The data analysis software package must be fully integrated into the control software and offer specialized algorithms such as – slope, cell index doubling time, and EC50/ IC50 calculations based on maximum cell index, minimum cell index, area under the curve, and time dependent cell index values.
1.8 The dynamic range of the system must approach 2 logs of cell growth – from 100 cells per well to confluence (depending on cell type).
1.9 Well-to-well precision and accuracy must be within CVs less than 10%.
1.10 The instrument must operate within a standard tissue culture incubator so that precise control of temperature, humidity and other environmental factors such as CO2 and oxygen can be maintained.
1.11 The instrument must withstand high temperature (15-40C) and humidity (80% at 32C, 50% at 40C).
1.12 The control unit for the instrument must be a separate computer system.
1.13 The control unit/software must have a GUI, set-up of experimental protocols, configurable experimental design, and support multistage experiments
1.14 The 96-well plates must have inter-digitated gold electrode pattern that covers at least 70-80% of the surface area of E-Plate wells, thus maximizing sensitivity and reproducibility.
1.15 The 96-well plates must comply with ANSI/SBS 1-2004 requirements: the spacing of the wells must be 9 mm center-to-center as per the ANSI/SBS 4-2004 standard for 96-well microplates.
1.16 All components of the E-Plate must be biocompatible and the microplates sterile and tissue-culture treated.
1.17 The E-Plates must be designed so cells can be imaged directly on the devices through a specially designed area using a standard laboratory microscope.
1.18 Must not require any calibration to maintain proper function.
1.19 Must include installation and training.
Justification of Pre-Selected Supplier:
Supplier: ACEA Biosciences Inc., 6779 Mesa Ridge Rd #100, San Diego, CA 92121
Justification:
ACEA Biosciences xCELLigence® Real Time Cell Analyzer is the only equipment on the market that meets the combination of technical specifications required for the research needs. It is the only system capable of measuring electrical impedance to provide a quantitative, real-time read-out of cellular adherence, morphology, and viability. Such a label-free, real-time cell analyzer is required for our studies on cellular differentiation, function, and high-throughput compound screens.
