VOLUNTARY EX ANTE TRANSPARENCY NOTICE

Section I: Contracting Authority/Entity

I.1)

Name, Address and Contact Point(s)

I.2)

Type of contracting Authority and Main Activity or Activities

Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local sub-divisions National or federal agency/Office Regional or local Authority Regional or local Agency/Office Body governed by public law European Institution/Agency or International Organisation

General public services Defence Public order and safety Environment Economic and financial affairs Health Housing and community amenities Social protection Recreation, culture and religion Education Other (Please specify): biomedical research

Section II: Object of the Contract

II.1)

Description

II.1.1)

Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority

Flow Cytometry Analysis and Cell Sorting Solution.

II.1.2(a))

Type of works contract

II.1.2(b))

Type of supplies contract

Purchase		Rent		Lease
Hire-purchase		Combination of these

II.1.2(c))

Type of service contract

II.1.2)

Main site or location of works, place of delivery or performance

1 Midland Road, London, NW1 1AT.

II.1.3)

This notice involves a framework agreement

II.1.4)

Short description of the contract or purchase(s)

The Francis Crick Institute (‘the Crick’) is a biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding the scientific mechanisms of living things. Its work is to understand why disease develops and to find new ways to treat, diagnose and prevent illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections and neurodegenerative diseases.

The Francis Crick Institute requires two high-end 5 laser Flow Cytometers, (an analyser and cell sorter) that incorporate the very latest technologies available in the field, to enable the analysis and cell sorting of samples containing Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) at containment 3 level. These samples include viable human and experimental infectious samples (e.g. cells infected with M. tuberculosis, HIV, influenza, malaria parasite or other). The instruments will be housed in a class 1 Biological Safety Cabinet.

All of these experiments can frequently need up to 18 fluorochromes requiring excitation by a combination of 355nm, 405nm, 488nm, 561nm and 640nm lasers.

Currently, the Crick is unable to conduct experiments on such live cells requiring handling at containment 3 and which are stained with up to 18 fluorochromes because we do not have suitable high end cytometers housed in a class 1 Biological Safety Cabinet with this detection capability. Therefore this is impairing our ability to maintain our cutting-edge international reputation and success in this research area at the highest international level.

In research into the immune response to tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and other pathogens such as influenza, HIV and malaria it is essential to be to be able to analyse, cell sort and subsequently identify both infected cells and those involved in the immune responses to these pathogens. An understanding of immune control of the pathogen and the factors resulting in disease pathogenesis is of fundamental importance for protection.

Due to the complexity of the cells involved in immune regulation, both in infection and disease, populations of immune cells need to be analysed and/or cell sorted to determine their functional characteristics. A central part of this work is to gain a detailed understanding of the extent and kinetics of immune cell recruitment into the infected lung and /or other tissue, and the long-range effects of the pathogen in the host.

The analysis of innate and adaptive immune cells requires staining cells with up to 18 fluorochromes. Flow cytometric analysis and cell sorting of the cell types recruited and of their activation state is crucial to do this type of experiment, and we are presently setting up 18 colour panels to analyse in detail adaptive and innate immune cell subtypes in situations where use of Containment Level 3 Flow Sorter is a requirement.

Importantly, not all staining can be done on fixed cells as resolution is lost, therefore, certain antibody panels for multiparametric analysis will work only on unfixed cells. The ability to place them into a Cat 3 environment would allow us to perform this crucial part of our work enabling a better understanding of the immune cell types involved in pathogenesis and in protection in these important infection situations and tracing the pathogen which can be labelled with reporters where a fluorochrome is often fixation sensitive.

In addition, specific B and T lymphocyte responses together with cells of the innate immune response are analysed directly ex-vivo throughout infections in many genetically manipulated mice for their multi- functional capabilities. All these experiments require the instruments to have the high sensitivity not available in other manufacturer's instruments and the capacity to analyse up to 20 parameters in order to detect rare cells. This can only be achieved using the new generation instruments.

The Crick is particularly interested in multicolour detection of different cell types of the immune response which may be protective or on the other hand help to disseminate the pathogen throughout the body during infection and also for detection of mycobacterial fluorescent reporters at the single cell level as well as sorting and measurement of bacterial viability (e.g. by colony forming units) in both mouse and human cell samples.

Therefore, to have access to this instrumentation on a regular basis in CL3 will is essential to maintain our international competitive edge in our research in tuberculosis tackling different aspects of pathogenesis and host adaptation.

Crucially, we need instruments whose enhanced sensitivity is good enough to detect cells expressing fluorescent proteins. In the future, we will use a broad range of other fluorescent proteins such as mCherry and katushka, which will enable us to study co-factors that might be involved.

The study of cytokine producing cells and their impact on a variety of immune responses are increasingly reliant on state of the art flow cytometry for accurate detection of these rare events. Additionally, we are expanding our studies to tissues with low cellular content where access to modern multicolour flow cytometry is a crucial prerequisite for such analysis.

To track the development, differentiation and regulation of pathogenic cells in several diseases models, various mice with fluorescent proteins (GFP, YFP, RFP and Katushka) under the control of important gene promoters use used. Cells from these mice have to be analysed or cell sorted at containment 3.

To keep up with the fast pace of research we critically depend on this technology, which is our main tool for investigating the function and characterisation of cells in in-vivo and ex-vivo biological systems requiring handling at containment 3 and is used in all our on- going research projects.

There is a requirement for containment 3 flow cytometry from a variety of Labs in addition to those working on tuberculosis as described above—additionally those studying multiple phenotypes in heterogeneous samples from infected patients, those using virally-infected cells lines, those looking at rare events and functional studies. The Labs that would take advantage of this instrument will include those looking at tuberculosis infection and multiple other infections in humans.

Many of these will deal with primary human cells, human cell lines or samples infected with tuberculosis or other pathogens. The ability to run samples without the need for fixation will allow better resolution of weakly expressed markers and allow functional assays such as calcium flux, other kinetic studies and apoptosis.

In addition to containment, the groups will require access to cytometers that are capable of multicolour analysis and cell sorting of a wide range of fluorochromes and fluorescent proteins and need to be able to take advantage of the newer dyes that are becoming available. Particularly important is the ability to differentiate multiple fluorescent proteins in the same sample—currently CFP, GFP, YFP and RFP. Adaptability of any cytometer in containment is vital to cover the range of applications needed and to allow some future-proofing and expansion. For maximum efficiency the analyser and cell sorter must have the same configurations and software to allow for experiments to be run on either and therefore increase capacity.

Without this high level instrumentation the Facility will be unable to meet the growing demand for containment 3 analysis and cell sorting on up to 18 colours, 5 laser instruments and thus maintain our international research reputation in this area.

II.1.5)

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

II.1.6)

Contract covered by the government procurement agreement (GPA)

II.2)

Total final value of the contract(s)

II.2.1)

Total final value of the contract(s)

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)

Type of procedure

IV.1.1)

Type of procedure

IV.2)

Award criteria

IV.2.1)

Award criteria

IV.2.2)

An electronic auction has been used

IV.3)

Administrative information

IV.3.1)

File reference number attributed by the contracting authority

IV.3.2)

Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

Other previous publications

Section V: Award of contract

Contract No:

 Lot Number: 

 Title: 

V.1)

Date of contract award decision:

V.2)

Numbers of offers received:

V.3)

Name and address of economic operator to whom the contract has been awarded

V.4)

Information on value of contract

V.5)

The contract is likely to be subcontracted

Short description of the value/proportion of the contract to be subcontracted

Section VI: Complementary Information

VI.1)

Contract related to a project and/or programme financed by community funds?

VI.2)

Additional Information

VI.3)

Procedures for appeal

VI.3.1)

Body responsible for appeal procedures

Body responsible for mediation procedures

VI.3.2)

Lodging of appeals

The Contracting Authority intends to enter into a contract, following a minimum 10 day calendar standstill period from the publication of this notice. For further information please contact the General Counsel at the e-mail address indicated.

VI.3.3)

Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

VI.4)

Dispatch date of this Notice

Annex D1 – General procurement

Justification for the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)
Directive 2004/18/EC

a) No tenders or no appropriate tenders in response to:

	Open procedure
	Restricted procedure

b) The products involved are manufactured purely for the purpose of research, experiment, study or development under the conditions stated in the Directive (for supplies only).

c) The works/goods/services can be provided only by a particular tenderer for reasons that are:

	Technical
	Artistic
	Connected with the protection of exclusive rights

d) Extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority and in accordance with the strict conditions stated in the Directive.

e) Additional works/deliveries/services are ordered under the strict conditions stated in the Directive.

f) New works/services, constituting a repetition of existing works/services and ordered in accordance with the strict conditions stated in the Directive.

g)Service contract awarded to the successful candidate or one of them after a design contest.

h) For supplies quoted and purchased on a commodity market.

i) For the purchase of supplies on particularly advantageous terms:

	from a supplier which is definitely winding up its business activities
	from the receivers or liquidators of a bankruptcy, an arrangement with creditors or a similar procedure.

j) All tenders submitted in reply to an open procedure, a restricted procedure or competitive dialogue were irregular or unacceptable. Only those tenderers were included in the negotiations which have satisfied the qualitative selection criteria.

Other justification for the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the OJEU:

k) The contract has as its object services listed in Annex B of Directive 2004/18/EC or in Annex XVII B of Directive 2004/17/EC

l) The contract falls outside the scope of application of the relevant directive.

In addition to the box(es) ticked above please explain in a clear and comprehensive manner why the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the OJEU is lawful, stating in any case the relevant facts, and, as appropriate, the conclusions of law in accordance with the articles in the relevant Directive (500 words maximum):

The Francis Crick Institute intends to procure 2 Flow Cytometers from Becton Dickinson, as we are unaware of any other supplier who would be able to provide 2 high end 5 laser Flow-Cytometers, a sorter and an analyser, where both cytometers are identical in optical layout, optical filter configurations and fully compatible software, along with the patented Becton Dickinson technology. This would enable the Crick to analyse and sort samples containing Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP).

The instruments would installed to customised requirements as both instruments need to be contained within a custom-built Class I Biological Safety Cabinet which will require daily fumigation with no damage to laser or optical systems. Sufficient room is needed within the hood to manipulate samples safely so the systems must be capable of being modified to fit the required space constraints if necessary.

The key requirements for both cytometers are: Optical pathway:

— Reflective octagon and trigon-shaped detection system to maximize signal sensitivity on all parameters.

— Detection of a minimum of eighteen fluorescence parameters plus two light scatter parameters.

— Interchangeable optical filters without the need to realign.

Processing rate

— The cytometer will be capable of achieving processing/acquisition rates of 70 000 (seventy thousand) events per second at 18-bit resolution or higher.

Sensitivity and detection system

— Fluorescence Sensitivity measured at 70 psi and 488nm laser excitation will be less than 90 (ninety) MESF (molecules of equivalent soluble fluorochrome) for FITC and less than 30 MESF for PE channels and have a relative fluorescence detection efficiency (Qr) of more than 90 for FITC and more than 650 for PE.

— FSC resolution should be less than 0.6 microns.

— PMTs will have high signal to noise ratio, and be able to detect the entire fluorescence spectrum in the range of 300nm to 900nm.

Laser Lines

— 5 pinholes, one each for solid state laser operating at wavelengths around 355nm (three five five), 405nm (four zero five), 488nm (four eight eight), 561nm (five six one), 640nm (six four zero).

— Lasers should be aligned independently through separate pinholes — lasers should be spatially separated not co-linear.

— Lasers will be controlled independently via a software interface.

Software

— Both instruments will be operated using identical software so the same protocol can be used on either.

— Identical configuration and parameters will allow analysis experiments to be conducted on either instrument.

— QC will be monitored daily using the unique CS&T software on both instruments so they meet strict performance requirements.

Additionally, the sorter requirements are:

— Quartz cuvette flow cell coupled to the fluorescence objective lens by refractive index-matching optical gel for optimal collection efficiency and sensitivity.

— The cell sorter quartz cuvette flow cell will incorporate an integrated nozzle for fixed stream alignment.

— Sort Purity at 25 000 (twenty-five thousand) events per second will be over 98 %.

— Analysis or droplet deflection sorting will take place inside a fully enclosed chamber that will additionally prevent atmospheric air contamination by pathogenic materials.

— The synergistic hood and instrument design will enable daily fumigation of the flow cell to take place without damage to the laser and optical systems.

The Crick intends to enter into a contract with Becton Dickinson to procure the two Flow Cytometers described 10 days after the publication of this notice.