QUB/2503/24 Contract for Supply, Delivery, Installation, Commissioning and Maintenance of a TMA Arrayer

The GCTU processes tissue samples for spatial transcriptomic analysis. This is a cutting-edge technique whereby researchers can determine the precise location of gene expression within the tissue context. To allow us to process archival tissue samples e.g. biobanked samples, or precious samples in a cost-effective way, we require instrumentation that will allow us to create tumour microarrays (TMAs). A TMA contains many small representative tissue samples from tens to hundreds of different patient/animal samples assembled on a single histological slide, and therefore allows high throughput analysis of multiple specimens at the same time. This also enables cost-effective analysis as multiple samples can be processed on a single slide, which is important for us to offer as a core service. By purchasing such instrumentation, this would enable the GCTU to support large scale studies, increase our throughput and decrease costs for service users.To do this we require an instrument that:1) Has changeable drills/tools that will allow us to work with both Human and Animal tissues in line with HTA requirements.2) Being able to process a large number of blocks (>70) per run to ensure maximal number of sample cores can be included per TMA and offer access to our service for high throughput projects such as those involving biobanked samples.3) Minimal consumable requirements to keep costs low for operation.4) Minimal service requirements to reduce system down time.5) Ability to capture cores in PCR tubes, rather than recipient block, for additional downstream usage flexibility such as next-generation sequencing and/or qPCR studies.