Trade Agreement: NAFTA/AIT/Canada FTAs with Peru/Colombia/Panama
Tendering Procedures: Generally only one firm has been invited to bid
Non-Competitive Procurement Strategy: Exclusive Rights
Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No
Vendor Name and Address:
Bio-Rad Laboratories (Canada) Ltd.
1329 Meyerside Drive
Mississauga Ontario
Canada
L5T1C9
Nature of Requirements:
Droplet Digital PCR System
01633-170824/A
Omerzo, Zeljka
Telephone No. - (204) 510-2597
Fax No. - (204) 983-7796
Line 1, Digital PCR System
1. Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN)
An ACAN is a public notice indicating to thesupplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities.If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.
2. Definition of the requirement
Molecular genetics and genomics research at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) - Brandon involves a broad suite of activities. Researchers apply genetic approaches using molecular tools, conduct transgenic studies, investigate plant development and physiology and characterize plant pathogens. A common essential need in these research projects is to quantify nucleic acids with high precision, sensitivity, and specificity at a high throughput level. These investigations often involve very limited amounts of nucleic acid samples, as from micro-dissected tissues. The new emerging Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR) technology offers a very robust system for absolute quantification of nucleic acids and is required to meet the research needs at AAFC-Brandon.
3. Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities (Minimum Essential Requirements)
Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that its equipment meets the following requirements:
1. ddPCR samples are amplified in a standard 96 well plate on a gradient enabled thermal cycler to allow for high sample throughput and gradient optimization of new assays.
2. The ddPCR Reader analyzes 32 samples/hour unattended, without manual intervention.
3. The ddPCR system is of a "benchtop" scale must read samples in standard 96-well format plates to enable incorporation into our existing workflows and use standard thermo cyclers already present at AAFC - Brandon. Existing workflows utilise a temperature gradient PCR step to optimise assay conditions and the requested new ddPCR system must be able to incorporate a temperature gradient PCR step. The temperature gradient ability must NOT require any additional pipetting or liquid handling steps as these will introduce additional errors into the experiment.
4. The ddPCR system must analyze 96 unique samples in less than 5 hours, including the steps of 1) partitioning of sample assays into 12,000 to 20,000 reaction partitions, 2) PCR amplification and3) reading and scoring reaction partitions. Note: This requirement is necessary in order to analyze multiple samples at once without introducing potential source of error by single tube analyses. Also, these features are needed to meet sample throughput requirements of the multiple users from several AAFC research programs as well as potential industrial partners at Brandon.
5. This ddPCR system should include droplet generator and droplet reader. The droplet reader MUST incorporate a 96-well auto-sampler so that unattended operation is possible to maximize sample throughput, and so that it can accommodate multiple users and/or plates per day.
6. The ddPCR system must produce 12,000 to 20,000 reaction partitions per sample for 96 unique samples in 30 minutes or less.
7. The ddPCR system that is compatible with DNA binding chemistries (e.g. Evagreen) as well as Hydrolysis probe chemistry using FAM and/or HEX dyes and must detect fluorescence signals corresponding to those derived from VIC-, HEX-,Evagreen-, or FAM-labeled PCR probes.
8. The ddPCR system must distinguish between gene copy number variants of 11 vs. 10 and less using two or less sample assay reactions of one reaction well each (equivalent to one chamber or panel of areaction chip)with an input of nucleic acid template equivalent to 100 ng of plant or microbse' genomic DNA or less so as to minimise amount of nucleic acid sample size required per assay and cost of consumables. This ability must be achieved without the need for a preamplification step which can cause a significant measurement bias by distorting the abundance and relative presence of target nucleic acids.
9. The ddPCR system must enable gene expression analysis and quantification of DNA copies with+/- 10% precision to meet the requirements of the multiple users from several research programs. The system must include gene expression module that can analyze and produce accurate gene expression levels in the sample.
10. The ddPCR system must detect a specific genetic variant at a level as low as 0.001% abundance in a sample mixture that includes other genetic variants, and enable a linear quantification of this variant over four orders of magnitude of abundance of this variant in a complex mixture of nucleic acids.
11. The ddPCR system must NOT require development of standard curves or need an external calibrator to estimate relative abundance of target nucleic acids, thereby minimizing the number of samples to be prepared and analyzed. Rather, the instrument must generate digital data reflecting absolute quantification of target nucleic acid abundance.
12. The digital PCR system must have a reaction partition volume of 1 nL or less.
13. The relative expanded uncertainty of the ddPCR system from the data for 20,000 reaction partitions is required to be 5% or less to achieve the data precision required by the research programs.
14. The ddPCR system must generate 12,000 to 20,000 reaction partitions from a 20 microlitre sample reaction volume.
15. TheddPCR system must NOT require use of specialized liquid handling equipment or robotic liquid handlers that would typically require specialized training and a dedicated technician to operate since the system will be used by numerous researchers from multiple programs.
16. The ddPCR system must generate and assay reaction partition in a manner that minimize the dead volume of the partition holder and reader to
