Background:
The Genetics laboratory at Canterbury Health Laboratories offers a range of molecular diagnostic tests to patients in Canterbury and wider New Zealand. This service requires a robust and reliable platform for the automated extraction of genomic DNA from peripheral blood samples for use in a range of PCR-based assays. An automated platform for setup of PCR-based assays is also required. Current volumes processed in the laboratory are ~250 samples per week.

What we are buying and why:
This tender is for an open-platform automated liquid handling system, which will perform both the DNA extraction and PCR setup processes. It is planned that the DNA extraction application currently in use in the laboratory (Macherey-Nagel NucleoSpin-96 blood core kit) will continue to be used, so the new instrument must be capable of performing this process. Note that proposals which require use of different proprietary DNA extraction applications will not be suitable for this tender.