Radioisotope counting facility

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This RTI requests the purchase of two pieces of equipment that will become part of a Radioisotope Counting Facility. The Facility will be part of the Common Laboratory Facilities of the Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics (CAREG) and will be managed by this unit for the use of the 7 applicants of this proposal, for the other CAREG members (21 to date) and those on the main campus of uOttawa requiring radioisotope counting facilities. Given Canadian legislative requirements, the transportation of radioactive samples is tightly regulated and in the absence of an effective counting facility, the work of at least 35 HQPs supervised by the applicants would be in jeopardy. The request ($74698 including 3.41% HST) is for the purchase of a Tri-Carb 2910TR Liquid Scintillation Counter (LSC) and a WIZARD2 Gamma Counter (GC). The LSC replaces a counter purchased in 2001 which has now been discontinued by its manufacturer; the GC replaces equipment purchased in 1989 which is obsolete and can no longer be repaired. Although technologies continue to improve, the use of radioisotopes for assessing pathway flux, receptor binding and drug discovery remains the 'gold standard'. Both pieces of equipment are heavily used for routine analyses and although they have served the co-applicants well with few major repairs over the years, a catastrophic failure of either piece would be a major blow to the work done by the users.