Description
The University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is seeking proposals for the development of an automated system for plant tissue culture and transformation. The system should be capable of identifying, selecting, and removing embryogenic portions of calluses, and tracking their growth and health. The system must work with callus material from at least one of the following biomass crops: sorghum, miscanthus, or switchgrass. The system must deliver a minimum of 75% regeneration of the calluses and be capable of manipulating a minimum of 10,000 calluses per day. The system should be scalable, with the ability to increase throughput to 50,000-500,000 calluses per day in the long-term.
Some desirable features and attributes of the system include the ability to conduct automated sampling of tissues from regenerated plantlets, refreshing media or transporting to new media plates as needed, and minimizing human operation/intervention.
The proposal should include a technical volume, a business volume, and a cost proposal. The technical volume should demonstrate how the offeror will fulfill the technical requirements and successfully perform the subcontract. The business volume should include information on the offeror's financial resources, accounting and timekeeping system, and purchasing system. The cost proposal should include a total estimated cost and a proposed fee for the work.
The University anticipates awarding at least one subcontract for up to $2,000,000.00 as a result of this RFP, but may award multiple subcontracts if it is in the best interest of the project to do so.
Some key points to consider:
* The system must be automated for at least 80% of steps and minimize human operation/intervention.
* The system should be suitable for transfer to JGI and operation within JGI's user facility context.
* The offeror should propose technology that is scientifically and technically sound, and advances the ability to perform plant transformation at the desired throughput and capacity.
* The offeror should provide relevant preliminary/proof-of-principle data to support their application.
* The University reserves the right to reject any proposal, to waive any minor proposal irregularities, or to cancel this RFP at any time prior to award without cost to the University.