SCIREQ EXPOSURE SYSTEM

Procurement Summary

In accordance with the mission of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Nanotechnology Research Center (NTRC), to protect worker health and safety, evaluating toxicity of workplace respiratory exposure to particulates is of great concern. In addition, efforts are being made globally to reduce the number of animals used in researching these exposures. The air-liquid interface is a newly emerging culture system for toxicity evaluations that offers the most physiologically relevant culture system to mimic the lung response observed in humans and in animal research. The custom package from SCIREQ offers an all-in-one system for aerosol generation and exposure at the air-liquid interface in cultures. The items in this SCIREQ Exposure System are being procured through a single contract with Scireq Scientific Respiratory Equipment (SCIREQ), Inc., located in Montreal, Canada, under 75D30124P18937 for the amount of $142,370.00. This procurement is for supplies that constitute an exposure system for toxicology studies to characterize the risks associated with occupational exposures in direct relationship to the mission of NIOSH. This exposure system allows the generation of wet and dry aerosols for traditional and air-liquid interface culture systems. Accuracy of culture systems in predicting in vivo outcomes has become a global priority to reduce the use of animals in research. The system is unique in several features. The particle generator/delivery method does not use electrostatic charging of the materials for exposure. This allows the investigator to perform a test without altering the materials for the exposure, making that exposure as realistic to the workplace as possible. It consists of a trademarked generation system, InExpose®, and related supplies and equipment. It also comes with an ExpoCube®, that can be transferred from the culture incubator to the exposure system without alteration which is beneficial to the live cell culture. The software component optimizes particle concentrations and fluid dynamic modeling for precision exposures. This is the only system that does not alter a dry powder particulate exposure material during delivery to a culture system. Without the waiver for this system, it will not be possible to accurately predict pulmonary toxicity of dry powder exposures in culture.

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