36C24125Q0584.docx

SUBJECT*

Oroboros NexGen X | X | OROBOROS INSTRUMENTS CORP

GENERAL INFORMATION

SET-ASIDE

830 Chalkstone Avenue

Providence RI

CONTACT INFORMATION

Network Contracting Office 1 (NCO 1) Contracting Officer (90C) 1 VA Center Augusta ME 04330

POINT OF CONTACT*

Contract Specialist Andrew Simard andrew.simard@va.gov andrew.simard@va.gov

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

AGENCY’S URL

URL DESCRIPTION

DESCRIPTION

Pre-Solicitation Notice of intent to award a sole source contract. This is not a solicitation. The Department of Veterans Affairs intends to negotiate a sole source contract with:

Oroboros Instruments GmbH Schoepfstrasse 18, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

This is not a solicitation. The Department of Veterans Affairs intends to award the Oroboros Next Gen equipment located at the VAMC Providence, RI. Oroboros Instruments is the Exclusive/Sole source vendor of the Oroboros NextGen-O2k and Power NextGen-O2k. The contractor will provide the required Oroboros Next Gen equipment. Since the intent is to procure this on a sole source basis, no solicitation will be posted to Contracting Opportunities SAM.gov.

The authority for this action is FAR 6.302.1-1 Only One Responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

The NAICS 334516. The size standard is 1,000 employees. The PSC/FSC is 6640.

Interested persons may contact the Contracting Specialist by email at andrew.simard@va.gov regarding this procurement.

The determination to conduct a competitive procurement based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Contracting Officer.

Response must be received by 08/21/2025 NLT 10:00am EST.

Presolicitation Notice Presolicitation Notice

Presolicitation Notice

STATEMENT OF WORK

SCOPE OF WORK: The purpose and scope of this contract is to acquire additional scientific research equipment for research labs in Bldg 35.

EQUIPMENT

The following scientific equipment shall be provided by the contractor in the space determined by the Government. All equipment shall be in new condition, and fully operational in accordance with manufacturer literature specifications.

The request is for Oroboros Power NextGen – O2k Redox, Series XB and the NextGen-O2k Redox, Series XB The equipment requested is specifically designed to study mitochondria respiration in a high-resolution way and are the only instruments in the market to handle these kinds of complicated measurements. The NextGen O2K is the complete package, while the Power NextGen is designed for use as a second instrument that can be added to the NextGen package to increase output in High-Resolution Respirometry. Each instrument has two Chambers and for reproducibility of research results, four chambers are needed. The difference in the instruments is that one comes with accessories that are not needed on the other instrument. These instruments are also compatible with our already acquired O2k-Fluo and O2k-Startup that were purchased in 2018, 2019 and 2021. We continue to need advanced, compatible equipment to keep up with the advances in science.

Mitochondria are the powerhouse of cells. They are important in eukaryotic cell energy production (i.e., ATP), calcium storage, cell signaling, and cell death regulation. Impaired mitochondrial function has been linked to almost all different kinds of human diseases. The equipment offers many advantages in comparison to other approaches. Respirometry reflects the function of mitochondria as structurally intact organelles. It provides a dynamic measurement of metabolic flux (rates), in contrast to static determination (states) of molecular components, such as metabolite and enzyme levels, redox states and membrane potential, concentrations of signaling molecules, or RNA and DNA levels.

Mitochondrial respiratory function, therefore, cannot be measured on frozen tissue samples, but usually requires minimum storage times of biological samples and delicate handling procedures to preserve structure and function. Moreover, mitochondrial respiration yields an integrative measure of the dynamics of complex coupled metabolic pathways, in contrast to monitoring activities of isolated enzymes. Measurement of respiratory flux in different metabolic states is required for evaluation of the effect on oxidative phosphorylation of changes in metabolite levels, membrane permeability, or activity of individual enzymes. Small imbalances in metabolic flux can result in large cumulative changes of state of a metabolic system. Vice versa, even a large defect of individual enzymes may result in minor changes of flux, due to threshold effects.

Investigating mitochondrial dysfunction in many diseases that affect the Veteran population will allow us to better understand the mechanisms underlying these diseases and develop novel therapeutics. Therefore, the equipment is important in our research investigations that have an ultimate goal to improve lifelong outcomes in the Veteran population.

Our goal is to detect mitochondrial respiration changes in the skeletal muscle, disease models, oxygen concentration and test drugs to see if we can rescue or protect the mitochondria from disease related insults using the new scientific equipment. We will further extend the capabilities of the Oroboros equipment to other projects. The instruments will be shared among all the investigators to advance scientific understanding and discovery.

Period of performance: One year from award

Location of equipment: Research Bldg 35, Warranty: Manufacturer 36 month warranty applies.

Contractor personnel are not required to install. There is no access to VA systems and the equipment will not be on the VA network. Set-up and installation is performed by lab personnel; instructions provided in the user-friendly O2k-Manual.