Rental Agreement for a high sensitivity Tandem Mass Spectrometer - High Performance Liquid Chromatography system for analysis of hormones biological fluids.

The CUH Blood Sciences Biochemical Genetics Unit is looking to replace a high sensitivity Triple Quadrupole Tandem Mass Spectrometer (TMS) coupled to an ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) system. This system runs 10 methods including newborn blood spot analysis that were developed either in-house or in conjunction with suppliers.

The Blood Sciences labs currently have four Sciex triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometers (TMS) linked to Shimadzu or Sciex (Exion) liquid chromatography (HPLC) systems. This includes the system that we are replacing. The combined laboratories currently process around 120,000 samples a year through the four LC-Tandem Mass Spectrometer systems. Results generated from the systems are from technically/clinically validated methods and are used for diagnosis of endocrine and metabolic disorders, as well as for neonatal screening tests.

The replacement system must be capable of quantitation of a range of metabolites in human serum, urine and blood spot and therefore must be capable of using Chemoview to quantitate the newborn screening blood spot assays. Some of the analytes are at nmol/L concentrations in human serum e.g. urine matanepherine, so a high sensitivity system is essential. The TMS - HPLC system must have the following critical elements:

TMS

• The TMS must have multiple modes of operation including multiple reaction monitoring and scan modes. Scan modes must include precursor ion scan, product ion scan, neutral loss scan.
• The TMS must be capable of Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionisation (APCI) and electrospray (ESI) ionisation modes with proven use of APCI for clinical hormone analyses.
• The TMS must be capable of positive and negative modes.
• The TMS must be capable of polarity switching within a sample acquisition run with a minimum settling time of 5msec between polarities.
• The TMS must accept a fluid flow rate from 5µL/min to 3000µL/min, without flow splitting.
• To allow for future development needs the TMS must have an option to be upgraded to a linear ion trap system that will provide additional scan modes such as MRM3, Enhanced Product Ion Scan.
• The TMS must have an integral infusion pump under full control of the system software to allow infusion rates up to 30µL/min to allow compound tuning and for ion suppression testing.
• The TMS control software must be compatible with multi-vendor HPLC systems e.g. Shimadzu, Agilent, Waters.
• The system must be capable of the self-generation of all gases required for routine use (i.e. no requirement for a gas cylinder in the lab).
• A suitable roughing pump must be supplied. This must be an oil-free pump.
• Results must be able to be exported in .txt format to allow uploading to our current hospital information system.
• Current methods in use in the Biochemical Genetics Unit must be directly transferrable without the need for re-development.

HPLC

• The HPLC system must have the ability of a dual binary pump arrangement allowing pressures up to 10,000PSI. This setup is to allow online solid phase extraction using 2-position valves.
• There must be a minimum of 4 solvent lines per pump with inline degassers. If binary pumps are proposed, there must be 4 solvent lines for each side of the binary pump. The LC must have the ability to switch to different solvent input lines, analytical columns without operator intervention to allow running of multiple assays to be processed consecutively.
• The HPLC autosampler must be capable of injecting from 1 to 50µL.
• The HPLC autosampler must have at least six positions for plate/vials and must be able to inject from 96 shallow well plates, 96 deep well plates and vials. It must be capable of using these in combination without changing hardware configuration.
• The column oven must have an operating temperature range of 5 to 85°C.
• The column oven and must be able to accommodate six analytical columns of 25cm length.
• The column oven must be able to accommodate and drive 2, 7-port 6-position valves to allow switching between columns and therefore multiplexing of analytical methods.
• The system must be able to drive 3 2-position 6-port valves independently to allow sequential running of different methods.