BACKGROUND:
Notice is hereby given by the University of Ottawa of the intent to enter into a contract with Spectra Research Corporation (“SRC”) to purchase two Cellink 3D bioprinter systems, the Bio X and the Lumen X, for the purpose of generating sterile 3D printed biomaterials for tissue engineering applications.
PROCESS:
Suppliers who consider their equipment functional, successfully tested, readily available and fully compliant 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.
Date of issue: December 20, 2019
Closing Date: January 9, 2020 at 3:00:00 P.M. E.S.T.
INTENDED USE:
This equipment will be used for the purpose of generating sterile 3D printed biomaterials for tissue engineering applications and will facilitate the development of novel plant-based biomaterials in support of the project “Biofabrication of Designer Architectures in Grown Cellulose Biomaterials”.
The Lumen X will be used for printing materials that will first be sterilized and then placed into the sterile Bio-X to be impregnated with new cell-based materials, before then being placed into animals.
FUNCTIONALITY:
The equipment must conform to the following Minimum Requirements:
- One bioprinter must be extrusion based, and the other must be a digital light projection (DLP) based stereolithographic (SLA) bioprinter.
Extrusion Based Bioprinter:
- Must be designed inside a self-contained chamber that ensures a sterile, bacteria-free, HEPA filtered environment without the need to purchase additional equipment such as tissue culture hood to house the unit.
- Must have three modular print heads that can each be individually interchanged, allowing for the use of up to three bioink formulations, with or without living cells, in a temperature controlled and sterile environment.
- Must include the ability to add-on camera vision in order to provide the user with visual access to the prints during fabrication.
- Must allow bioprinting simultaneously with up to three different hydrogels and cell mixtures to maintain cell viability (at least 85%) and sterility in a platform that utilizes piston and pneumatically driven extrusion, and the ability to photo-crosslink bioink prints with cells.
- Must have fast printing (within minutes), automated calibration and an additional HD camera tool head to enable complex bioprints to be produced, with living cells in a spatially controlled fashion, and to enable multiple prints to be simultaneously produced in multi-well formats that are routinely used in cell biology laboratories.
- Must have photo curing print heads to ensure that photo-activatable or cross-linkable bioinks can be utilized.
DLP-SLA Based Bioprinter:
- Must be designed for bioprinting applications without the need post-purchase user-modifications to convert it into a “true” bioprinter, meaning it must be engineered to require a small volumes (<1mL) of bioink (as opposed to a large reservoir (>10-100 mL)).
- Must enable creation of high resolution (at least 50um) vascular structures that incorporate cells at fast (minutes) print speeds and in sterile environments.
- Must be designed for fast (within minutes) bioprinting applications in order to maintain 85% cell viability, a key feature which differentiates the device from the rest of the market.
- Printing components in contact with the hydrogels/cells must be autoclavable to ensure sterility.
- Light source must enable bioprinting at high resolution (pixel size: 10-50um).
- Must be possible to install in a sterile tissue culture hood in order to maintain aseptic conditions.
Both Bioprinters:
- Print design files and software of both bioprinters must be cross-compatible so as not to double research workload by having to create two different print design files to meet the criteria of different company models.
- Photo-activated and cross-linkable hydrogels (“bioinks”) must be capable of being 3D printed at high resolution simultaneously with living mammalian or plant cells in sterile environments.
- Both bioprinters must operate with a variety of bioinks and be cross-compatible with one another.
- Both bioprinters must offer complementary photo curing abilities. The SLA bioprinter must have high resolution (at least 50um) photo curing and the extrusion based bioprinter must have photo curing print heads with the ability to extrude cells in hydrogels.
- Both bioprinters must be desktop sized in order to be moved easily between different operating environments.
- Both bioprinters must be able to print quickly (within minutes) and ensure the maintenance of cell viability (85%) and sterility.
- Both bioprinters must have CSA or equivalent recognized certification mark as per the Electrical Safety Authority.
Justification of Pre-Selected Supplier: Supplier:
Spectra Research Corporation, 3585 Laird Road, Unit 15-16, Mississauga, ON, L5L 5Z8, Canada
Justification:
Cellink’s Bio X and the Lumen X are designed to be complementary to one another, and are the only dual bioprinter pair available on the market that meet the requirements of the leading edge research objectives through a combination of technical specifications and cross-compatibility.
In addition to meeting all the above-mentioned mandatory requirements, the Bio X is the only desktop sized, extrusion based bioprinter on the market with three modular, photo curing print heads that is designed in a self-contained chamber that ensures a sterile, bacteria-free, HEPA filtered environment.
The Lumen X, newly released on the market in March 2019, is the only DLP-SLA bioprinter engineered to utilize small volumes of bioink (<1mL); that can print within minutes to maintain 85% cell viability; and that can print at high resolution (≈50μm).
