SOURCES SOUGHT
66 -- Inverted Total Internal Reflection (TIRF) Microscope System for Single Molecule Studies at NINDS
- Notice Date
- 5/9/2018
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 334516
— Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 4211, MSC 9559, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892-9559, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20892-9559
- Solicitation Number
- SBSS-NIH-NIDA-18-4949480
- Archive Date
- 5/21/2018
- Point of Contact
- Jason Williams, Phone: 3014965985, Nancy Lamon-Kritikos, Phone: 301-480-2447
- E-Mail Address
-
Jason.Williams1@nih.hhs.gov, nancy.lamon-kritikos@nih.gov
(Jason.Williams1@nih.hhs.gov, nancy.lamon-kritikos@nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. If your organization is not a small business, there is no need to respond to this announcement. For purposes of this announcement, a small business concern, in addition to meeting the small business size standard for the applicable NAICS code, is defined as "any business entity organized for profit with a place of business located in the United States or its outlying areas and that makes a significant contribution to the U.S. economy through payment of taxes and/or use of American products, material and/or labor, etc." The purpose of this notice is to obtain Capability Statements from small businesses directly addressing their ability to provide a product that meets all of the Salient Characteristics contained in the Purchase Description. In general, the Government is seeking 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 for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining whether a small business set-aside is possible for this acquisition (or if the acquisition can be further set-aside for one of the socio-economic categories of small businesses). This notice is issued to help determine the availability of qualified companies technically capable of meeting the Government requirement and to determine the method of acquisition. It is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses will not be considered as proposals or quotes. No award will be made as a result of this notice. The Government will NOT be responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice. This notice is strictly for research and information purposes only. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) CODE: The NAICS code applicable to this requirement is 334516 - ANALYTICAL LABORATORY INSTRUMENT MANUFACTURING. The corresponding small business size standard is 1,000 or fewer employees. Background Information: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation's leading medical research agency and the primary Federal agency whose mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability, conducting, supporting and making medical discoveries that improve people's health and save lives. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), conducting research into the cause, treatment, and prevention of neurological disorders. The NINDS mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease. Statement of Need and Purpose : An Inverted Total Internal Reflection (TIRF) Microscope is needed to perform single molecule imaging in support of research to be conducted by the Molecular Neurophysiology Section (MNS) of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Additional Background Information and Objective: The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)-Molecular Neurophysiology Section (MNS) studies the conformational dynamics of proteins, focusing on the large-conductance voltage- and calcium-dependent potassium (BK) channels, Na+/K+ ATPase and Adenosine Deaminase Acting on RNA (ADAR). The first two are membrane proteins and the third one is a cytosolic protein that modifies mRNA at specific sites resulting in many instances with a change in codon that ultimately produce a protein with altered functions. Many substrates of ADAR2 are membrane proteins, including those of our immediate interest. Recently, MNS has begun applying fluorescence approaches to understand the dynamics of membrane proteins by measuring simultaneously ionic currents and fluorescence signals from a population of proteins. For many questions, the present approach is informative; yet, there is an unparalleled understanding of a biological system once you study it at the single molecule level. MNS is proposing to set up a microscope to perform single molecule Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (smFRET). One example of the power of this approach is the possibility to track conformational changes of individual molecules in real time. This information allows the characterization of the time that a molecule dwells between two or more states, which provides a direct determination of the reaction rates of specific transitions. Typically, Cy3 (donor) and Cy5 (acceptor) fluorophores are used. These molecules can be incorporated into proteins by two ways: 1) cysteine substitution followed by chemical modification with cysteine-reactive fluorescence probes or 2) site-directed incorporation of unnatural fluorescent amino acids. The Imaging Probe Development Center from the National Institutes of Health has already synthesized for MNS three unnatural fluorescent amino acids: BODIPY, Cy3 and Cy5, all with short linkers between the fluorophore and the alpha carbon. From the biological perspective, we are ready to begin experiments at the single molecule level. Generic Name of Product : Inverted Total Internal Reflection (TIRF) Microscope System for Single Molecule Studies Sample Product: Nikon Ti2-E Inverted TIRF Microscope for Dual Color Single Molecule Imaging Salient characteristics The NINDS-MNS requires (1) Inverted Total Internal Reflection (TIRF) microscope system (composed of microscope and component parts) for single molecule studies system that meets all the following salient characteristics: 1.System must have a 25mm field of view with transmitted and fluorescence illumination engineered specifically for flatness across the 25mm field. 2.System must have a motorized encoded XY stage, high precision Z motor to achieve real-time compensation of focus drift, which is important for TIRF and single molecule imaging. 3.System must have a TIRF illuminator actuated by micrometers that afford extremely fine control of beam angle; this is advantageous for optimizing signal to noise during single molecule imaging. 4.System must have a 100X Apo TIRF 1.49 NA oil lens, apochromatically corrected across the visible range, including a correction collar for point spread function optimization. 5.System must include a laser safe camera port with an integrated Bertrand lens to safely view the laser beam spot during angle changes in TIRF imaging. 6.System must be flexible to expand from a single TIRF input to include multiple additional TIRF illuminators onto a single microscope in flexible wavelength and motorization combinations. 7.System must be driven by software that support for camera-timed hardware triggering, dual triple and quad camera synchronization, custom acquisition scripting and live ratio/FRET calculations. 8.System should be directly triggered by a camera timing signal. 9.System should be compatible for upgrades, including field scanning and laser scanning confocal, STORM and SIM superresolution, as well as FLIM and FCS devices. 10.A focus system with offset lens is needed to correct Z drift in real time during imaging. 11.System has to have two cameras with single photon counting mode; amplification of signal to increase the signal to noise ratio Quantity : One microscope system consisting of various components and software as described in the Salient Characteristics above. Contract Type : A firm fixed price type contract is anticipated for this acquisition Delivery Date: 30 days after receipt of order Delivery Location: National Institutes of Health Porter Neuroscience Research Center Bldg 35 35 Convent Drive Bethesda, MD 20892 Warranty : Industry standard Capability Statement / Information Sought: Small business Contractors that believe they possess the ability to provide the required products should submit documentation of their ability to meet the project requirements, addressing the Salient Characteristics contained in this announcement (a generic marketing brochure would likely not be sufficient to demonstrate a source's capability to meet the stated requirements) to the Contracting Officer. Contractors should also provide their Company Name, DUNS number, Physical Address, and Point of Contact Information and if applicable, Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contract number. Interested organizations are required to identify their type of business, applicable North American Industry Classification System Code, and size standards in accordance with the Small Business Administration definitions and guidelines. Additionally, please indicate the country of manufacture of the product your organization can offer to meet the stated requirements. The government requests that no proprietary or confidential business data be submitted in a response to this notice. However, responses that indicate the information therein is proprietary will be properly safeguarded for Government use only. Capability statements must include the name and telephone number of a point of contact having authority and knowledge to discuss responses with Government representatives. Capability statements in response to this market survey that do not provide sufficient information for evaluation will be considered non-responsive. When submitting this information, please reference the Small Business Sources Sought notice number. All capability statements sent in response to this Small Business Sources Sought Notice must be submitted electronically (via email) to Jason Williams, Contracting Officer, at willjas@nida.nih.gov. All responses must be received by the specified due date and time in order to be considered. The response must be received on or before May 17, 2018 at 5:00 PM EST. Note: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in the response. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After review of the responses received, pre-solicitation and solicitation notices may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. The solicitation release date is pending. The Government intends to negotiate a fixed-price contract.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/NIH/NIDA-01/SBSS-NIH-NIDA-18-4949480/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Contractor's facility, United States
- Record
- SN04917616-W 20180511/180509231209-af8081264c8f0c66c69df8833d6a8142 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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