Announcement of an Exempt Purchase

Confocal microscope

This purchase is exempt from the usual selection processes of the Procurement Code because the procurement expenditure is for performing sponsored research and other sponsored activities under grants and contracts funded by the sponsor or by sources other than State appropriations. (30 ILCS 500 / 1-13(b)(8)) Procurement of an Olympus brand for Dr. Khetani's second microscope (previous one purchased in 2017) will allow Dr. Khetani's graduate students to use detachable parts across the same microscope frames for both microscopes to enable increased research productivity and better data integration given the same software platforms as well for the microscopes. Additionally, Olympus microscopes have features that none of the other microscope manufacturers are able to provide Dr. Khetani for his research productivity, such as the ability to use lasers (and tuned detector) into the near-infrared light region for imaging cell cultures and faster detectors for higher speed of microscope use for higher productivity on sponsored research projects.