Announcement of an Exempt Purchase

Laboratory Equipment Optical imaging system for studying small animal disease model progression, response to therapy, and cell migration invivo. Processes light at different wavelengths/sizes to view the disease/illness in live animals over a period of time.

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)) Although there are various methods to monitor illness/diseases in animals, this instrument provides a way to observe the life of the illness/disease for a long period of time without causing any stress with minimal direct interaction with the animal. No other instrument provides high quality images and data than the Lago X. This information is necessary to be able to move forward with research and obtain funding/grants for UIC. The x-ray feature and being able to scan at 50 micron depth can only be done using Lago X. The list of users who use larger animals for their research at UIC ,who were not able to do this type of research/imaging due to the limitation of being able to only image small animals at 20 mircon, will increase giving more opportunities to compete with other researchers in their field of study.