36490-13b2-ACAN - Thunder Imager 3D Tissue

BACKGROUND:
Notice is hereby given by the University of Ottawa of the intent to enter into a contract with Leica Microsystems Inc. to purchase a fast-imaging upright fluorescence microscope capable of imaging immuno-stained thick muscle tissue or isolated muscle fibers of various animals and removing blurring in real time.
PROCESS:
Suppliers who 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 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: July 14, 2022   
Closing Date: July 29th 2022 at 12:00:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time

INTENDED USE:

The current purchase will allow the observation and analysis of immuno-stained thick muscle tissue or isolated muscle fiber with two main objectives: 1) performing rapidly and efficiently 2D fiber typing and 2) characterising 3D cellular features related to muscle disorders.
This type of tissue has been a real challenge to image due to the extensive autofluorescence of blood and lipofuscin that cause blurring around the fluorescently labeled cellular structures.

To fulfill these needs, the upright microscope will rapidly acquire images in 2D or 3D while the software will remove the blur live, within a few seconds of image acquisition. Following acquisition, the processed images will be ready to be analyzed almost immediately with the Aivia software.

This instrument will be used as follow:

• Imaging in five different fluorescence channels, in 2D and in 3D, tens of fluorescently labelled muscle sections obtained from different animals.
• Imaging in 3D, hundreds of isolated and fluorescently labelled muscle fibers
• Automatic and immediate computational clearing of images being acquired.
• Use machine learning based image analysis, Aivia software to segment and perform the fiber typing of the acquired images.

• The imaging software must remove the out-of-focus blur surrounding fluorescing objects in real time while the sample is being imaged, using the patented “Computational Clearing” and its derivatives algorithms: the Instant Computational Clearing (ICC), and Small Volume Computational Clearing (SVCC) and Large Volume Computational Clearing (LVCC).
• The computational Clearing must be able to be executed on both 2D and 3D images The Computational Clearing should be executed in real time while the z-stack images are acquired. The required system will clear scattered light, at the origin of the blur, within a few seconds after imaging.
• The system must be capable of imaging sequentially in the same experiment at least 5 fluorescent channels, including DAPI, GFP, Alex 568, Cy5 and CY7 fluorophores.
• The stage must be motorized in the x,y dimensions.
• Motorized Z-focus drive
• Motorized and coded 7-position objective turret
• The system must include 1.25x NA 0.04, Multi-immersion 20x objective NA 0.75, 40x NA 0.95
• Equipped with a monochrome CMOS camera, minimum of 18mm diagonal, 6.5um pixel size and 80% QE at 500nm wavelength and 45000e- of full capacity well.
• Equipped with a second color camera
• CSA certification to meet Ontario standards must be included.
• The raw data must be provided and kept intact separately from the processed computational Clearing image.
• Optimized data handling for fast acquisition and large data set display; Data loss prevented even in case of sudden software or PC crash
• Include machine learning based image analysis software.
• Manufacturer must supply, install and act as single point of contact for all warranty and service relating to the instrument.
• Must include 3 years warranty.