SOURCES SOUGHT
66 -- Instruments and laboratory equipment
- Notice Date
- 3/21/2012
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 334516
— Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Rockledge Dr. Bethesda, MD, Office of Acquisitions, 6701 Rockledge Dr RKL2/6100 MSC 7902, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892-7902
- ZIP Code
- 20892-7902
- Solicitation Number
- NHLBI-CSB-(HL)-2012-090-DDC
- Archive Date
- 4/18/2012
- Point of Contact
- Deborah - Coulter, Phone: (301) 435-0368
- E-Mail Address
-
dc143b@nih.gov
(dc143b@nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This Sources Sought Notice (SS) is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 334516 with a size standard 500 employees, for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice." The NHLBI does not intend to award a contract on the basis of responses nor otherwise pay for the preparation of any information submitted. As a result of this Sources Sought notice, the NHLBI may issue a Request for Quote (RFQ). NO SOLICITATION IS AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. However, should such a requirement materialize, no basis for claims against the NHLBI shall arise as a result of a response to this Sources Sought notice or the NHLBI's use of such information as either part of our evaluation process or in developing specifications for any subsequent requirement. Based on the responses received from this SOURCES SOUGHT announcement, the proposed acquisition may be solicited as a Total Small Business Set-Aside. All eligible small business concerns responding to this Sources Sought Announcement must have the capabilities to provide Services/supplies as below. Mission of Cao lab at the Center for Molecular Medicine: The broad interest of the Cao group is to understand the metabolic and inflammatory basis of complex human diseases including but not limited to obesity, diabetes, fatty liver disease and cardiovascular disease. The long-term goal of the lab is to bridge the gaps between new developments in molecular biology and diseases of significant public health impact, and indentify novel therapeutic interventions against complex human diseases. Researches in the past decade have established that dys-regulation of an intertwined network formed by metabolic and immune cells sits at the core of numerous pathological conditions particular obesity-induced metabolic and inflammatory disorders. The Cao group investigates the inflammatory basis of metabolic diseases and the defective metabolism as a general cause of complex human diseases. We use high-thought sequencing, proteomic screens and robust cell assays in combination with advanced bioinformatics analyses to identify critical metabolic regulators particularly microRNAs and epigenetic modifiers and study their pathophysiological significance in genetic and diseased animal models. Their direct implications in human diseases Purpose: A Live Cell Imaging System is requested by the Dr. Haiming Cao's group. The Cao lab was recently established at Center for Molecular Medicine of NHLBI to study the pathological basis of metabolic diseases including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The laboratory needs a high quality microscope for imaging analyses of a wide range of samples including live and fixed cells and mouse and human tissue sections with high lipid content, and the requested system is the only full microscope system on the market that meets all our specific needs. Government Functional Specification: The Government requires a Live Cell Imaging System that has the following unique features that fit into the specific needs of our researches: 1. Fully integrated High Speed Non Laser based Optical Sectioning Unit The Government studies a variety of metabolic cells such liver, muscle and fat cells. These cells, especially the fat cells, are relatively large and loaded with lipid droplets. An optical section is absolutely required when imaging these cells to sufficiently resolve the molecular details in our study. Although laser based scanning unit has been widely used for optical section, the strong laser light could cause lipid peroxidation and interfere with the molecular pathway we study. We need a microscope that is equipped with a High Speed Non Laser based Optical Sectioning Unit. Among the available non laser optical sectioning system, we prefer one that uses the aperture correlation technology with a full hardware and software integration. This technology uses a grid pattern that allows fifty percent of the total excitation light to reach the sample, providing more than sufficient transmission to use a white light source rather than lasers. Unlike other optical sectioning techniques, all photons emitted from the sample are collected; none are physically blocked from reaching the detector. In this unit, we would like that the excitation filters, dichroics, emission filters are mounted in a single block on the base plate and the excitation and emission filters are mounted into two 3-position filter wheels to allow a very quick switching (~100 milliseconds) between adjacent positions of the filter module. Furthermore, we need the system has the capability to acquire optically-sectioned and widefield data at the same time, which provides us with more information from the sample. The unit should provide two separate grid patterns which are optimized for the both the high NA lenses (>1.0) and lower NA lenses (<1.0) of the microscope system. This allows the lab to optimized optical sectioning of our samples with the full variety of lenses equipped with this imaging system. The system needs to be fully automated and optimized grid to be implemented for appropriate objectives with very simple automatic operation. Fast aperture correlation calibration must be possible with a single software click. 2. LED light illumination Sometimes there is a need to perform long and repetitive imaging on the cells while they are alive and cultured in their optimal condition and this requires even milder illumination. LED modules produce very little heat with no UV over the visible range, which will minimize the perturbation of energy pathways we study. In addition, the very long life time of LED Modules >20,000 hours (compared to 300 hour life time of a traditional fluorescence bulb) will translate into significant cost-saving over long term. The microscope we are requesting should be equipped with LED light illumination that is ideal for Gentle Live Cell Imaging. It should hold 4 unique LED modules at one time, usable either individually or simultaneously. All LED modules should be fully integrated into the hardware enabling the user to quickly and easily change modules in and out with the hardware autodetecting the new LED. It has very fast (<1ms) switching time between LED modules. LED emission energy should be set individually for each LED. This allows us to specify the amount of energy each LED module can send to the sample. 3. Unique Microscope features critical to our research 40x objective with a 1.4 numerical aperture. The scope should be equipped with a 40x objective with a 1.4 numerical aperture. This objective allows the maximum amount light to be collected during the imaging process at the highest possible resolution. Therefore excitation light intensity can be reduced to minimize sample photobleaching due to the increased emission light collection of the lens. This allows the lab to achieve ultra high resolution imaging even with very low expression in the samples. Often the low expressing cells are those which are most viable for study. Transmitted Light Differential Interference Contrast The Government also requires the scope equipped with advanced optics for Fluoresence and DIC that allows the lab to look at very small structures with pixel perfect overlay. The research looks at extremely fine processes and structures and the lab has found a DIC with an MgF2 plate built ensures homogeneity and precise pixel recognition between Fluorescence and DIC (ie no pixel shift between fluorescence and DIC images). 4. Focus Maintenance Module with LED grid projection The scope should have an automatic focus maintenance module with far red LED grid projection to allow the region of interest to remain in focus for imaging over an extended period of time. It should also allow to navigate multiple locations of interest very quickly for imaging multiple live events in cells. Unlike devices which only project a point into the specimen plane, the grid projection allows very accurate focus to be maintained even when cover slips on our multi well dishes vary dramatically by looking at more a significantly larger area across the field. This is critical for the multi well live cell imaging experiments in which is needed to collect data for extended hours to obtain large statistical sampling for high precision results. 5. A robust, fully integrated and user-friendly Software The software equipped with the scope should have features built for processing the very large image files often generated in our study. The metabolic organs we study such as liver and fat exhibit a great deal of variations in the different regions so we routinely cover very large area when imaging such tissue sections. A robust stitch capacity is required to piece together the individual images to generate a large contour and such imaging process demands often overload regular software and computer. The software should utilize a unique image file format that enables fast and efficient loading, handling, and processing of very large image files (several Gigabytes). It should allow simultaneous processing and viewing of data, including 3D while acquiring images in real time. Shading correction should be handled directly on the camera leading to highly precise and corrected stitching on the fly. As well, a 90o rotation of camera image should be available to ensure that all cameras on the system to have correct orientation for tiled images regardless of the camera position or rotation, including tiled images acquired using the aperture correlation optical sectioning device. The software should give complete control over all components of the scope including filters, optical sectioning disk, shutter and allow to easily choose between a variety of imaging modes: capturing the raw data, a sectioned image, a widefield image, or a side-by-side view of the widefield and sectioned images. Capture of 3D data sets using the multichannel, timelapse, and Z-stack, mark and find locations with scanning stage, tiling, full range of measurement, and display of 3D data or extended Focus are all included with the software. A wizard that leads the user through the process of calibrating the unit is also going to be extremely helpful for our research. In summary, the Government requires a Live Cell Imaging System that will meet all of the NHLBI laboratory's research needs and acquisition of such a microscope will significantly boost the research productivities. Interested qualified small business organizations should submit a tailored capability statement for this requirement, not to exceed 20 single-sided pages (including all attachments, resumes, charts, etc.) presented in single-space and using a 12-point font size minimum, that clearly details the ability to perform the aspects of the notice described above and in the draft SOW. All proprietary information should be marked as such. Statements should also include an indication of current certified small business status; this indication should be clearly marked on the first page of your capability statement (preferably placed under the eligible small business concern's name and address). Responses will be reviewed only by NIH personnel and will be held in a confidential manner. All capability Statements sent in response to this SOURCES SOUGHT notice must be submitted electronically (via email) to Deborah Coulter Contract Specialist, at coulterd@nhlbi.nih.gov in either MS Word or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), by April 3, 7:30 am EST. All responses must be received by the specified due date and time in order to be considered.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/NIH/NHLBI/NHLBI-CSB-(HL)-2012-090-DDC/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: 10 Center Drive, Building 10 Room 8N109, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, United States
- Zip Code: 20892
- Zip Code: 20892
- Record
- SN02702736-W 20120323/120322000025-f32c4a1725c3831429d123b99dc91c4d (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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