(NU/1850) The Provision of Metabolomic Analysis Services (AbsolutelDQ Bile Acids kit and MxP Quant 500 Kits) for the NASH-DTA Retrospective and Prospective Study

The Newcastle University Translational and Clinical Research Institute is one of three research institutes established in 2019 following a restructure within the Faculty of Medical Sciences. Its members map across the biomedical research landscape. A number of major research projects are led from within the Institute including the "NASH Disease Translational Accelerator" (NASH-DTA) project. This project funded brings together clinicians and scientists from prominent academic centres across Europe and industrial partners to conduct research into advanced liver disease/cirrhosis caused by non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Their common goals are developing, validating and qualifying better biomarkers for NAFLD. Strongly associated with the epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes that are testing healthcare systems worldwide, NAFLD is an increasingly common cause of advanced liver disease that is characterized by substantial inter-patient variability in severity and rate of progression. Biomarkers under investigation in the project include genes that contribute to NAFLD progression. The NASH-DTA project has two parts: retrospective and prospective study. Retrospective study is based on analysing existing samples, prospective study will recruit 200 patients and collect new samples over 5 years.

The purpose of this tender process is to engage a supplier to provide metabolomic analysis on plasma samples from both a retrospective and prospective study using AbsolutelDQ Bile Acids kit and MxP Quant 500 Kit.