RFQ_-_Microscope_System.pdf

Request for Quote Microscopy System

The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) is the Nation's federal health sciences university and is committed to excellence in military medicine and public health during peace and war.

We provide the Nation with health professionals dedicated to career service in the Department of Defense and the United States Public Health Service and with scientists who serve the common good.

We serve the uniformed services and the Nation as an outstanding academic health sciences center with a worldwide perspective for education, research, service, and consultation; we are unique in relating these activities to military medicine, disaster medicine, and military medical readiness. USU is located in Bethesda, MD on the grounds of the Naval Support Activity Bethesda.

Additional information regarding USU can be found on our website: www.usuhs.mil.

USU has a requirement for a microscopy system, which will be used by a variety of departments with research efforts focused on a wide range of areas from improving the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury to cancer research.

See attached list for microscope systems USU already has.

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued.

This is a request for quotes (RFQ) for commercial items in accordance with the procedures of FAR Part 12 – Acquisition of Commercial Items and FAR Part 13 – Simplified Acquisition Procedures, to include FAR Subpart 13.5, Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items. This RFQ incorporates all provisions and clauses in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 05-88-1 (June 15, 2016) and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) (June 7, 2016).

In order to be eligible for award, offerors must be registered in www.SAM.gov, with completed representations and certifications by the close date of the solicitation.

Offerors are encouraged to submit multiple quotes for alternative solutions meeting the requirements and each quote which will be evaluated separately by the Government.

Overview of the Microscope System and our Application:

Our experiments will be designed to assess lipid and protein functions, protein-protein or protein-lipid interactions and segregation, protein aggregation and folding states, protein trafficking, organelle and vesicle dynamics such as fusion, degradation and biogenesis, and cellular dynamics such as division, motility and cell-to-cell interaction of living cells under various conditions or in the presence of various pharmacological agents. We will follow individual fluorescently labeled cultured cells over 24 hours or longer with short burst of high speed, high to super-resolution imaging at regular time intervals. The goal of these experiments will be to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying rapid, transient and/or long-term cellular or tissue level processes in living cells or tissues.

http://www.usuhs.mil/

In order to achieve our goals of high-resolution and super-resolution (per individual user’s and experimental needs), and sustained quantitative live cell imaging, we are requesting a spinning disk with

TIRF and single molecule imaging (STORM/PALM) or an equally non-perturbing and sensitive super-resolution confocal imaging system equipped with a photo-manipulation laser launch that can perform quantitative techniques including FRET, FRAP, FLIP, optogenetics and photoactivation. This system must be equipped with super-resolution to image at the suborganeller to single molecule level in live cells.

The idea is to have a single, modular, versatile unit that allows one to perform long-term, sustained quantitative high- and super-resolution microscopy on the same sample of live cells, and allows for photo manipulation during image acquisition.

Software:

For sustained imaging of cells in culture or in tissues, the software should allow for complex decision making during time-lapse. The programming interface should allow users to create unique experimental conditions using image analysis based “If/Then” type statements. This allows one to track individual cells even as they move beyond the field of view and to rapidly build montages of large XYZ fields. Other features in the software should allow for photo-manipulation or photo stimulation on the fly while evaluating the fluorescence intensity of a region of interest for quantitative light microscopy, or complex high content image acquisition in multi-well dishes for screens.

The system should also provide a passive license software key for off-line analysis (USUHS to supply a dedicated workstation/monitor for this second key).

Combined Applications and Hardware Tools:

Combined spinning disk/TIRF/super-resolution: This combined system should integrate the spinning disk confocal with the motorized TIRF hardware through the program software. Our goal is to perform high-resolution and super-resolution on the same sample. We intend to acquire different levels and types of information from the sample with minimal perturbation of this sample. Each mode (spinning disk and TIRF) must be equipped with an individual EMCCD camera (min of 512x512, 16um2 pixel size, peak QE 97%, full frame rate 56fps) and a high-speed emission filter wheel (<150ms adjacent positions with a minimum of 8 positions) for uncompromised flexibility and sensitivity in every experiment.

Additionally, the unit should be a fully motorized inverted microscope, equipped with two separate laser launches, one for imaging and one for photo stimulation.

Photo stimulation: In order to perform cutting edge quantitative light microscopy techniques including

FRAP, FLIP, optogenetics and photoactivation, the dedicated photo stimulation tool must be an ultra-fast beam steering unit for the most effective and precise delivery of high energy laser light into multiple user defined regions of interest. Additionally, this system should provide simultaneous stimulation wherein the image collection process is not interrupted while the stimulation or bleaching is occurring.

This must apply to imaging in both spinning disk confocal and TIRF imaging modes.

Lasers: We require two separate laser launches: (1) a no alignment and no maintenance laser source with a minimum of 6 illumination wavelengths (405/20mW, 445/20mW, 488/70mW, 514/40mW, 561/70mW and 647/125mW) for both the spinning disk and TIRF modules. This unit must be ready for super-resolution to perform single particle tracking, (2) a no alignment and no maintenance laser source that includes three (405/488/561) illumination wavelengths dedicated for the photo-manipulation/photo stimulation tool.

Focus Drift Correction: A key aspect of long-term sustained high and super-resolution imaging of live cells is a real-time focus drift correction to counteract focus drift due to subtle changes in the environment including temperature shifts and the addition of pharmaceutical agents in the media. The focus drift correction system must perform corrections continuously in real time during the image collection process. The speed should be on the order of 30Hz to avoid loss of time-sensitive data due to delay during adjustment.

Triggered Device Control: The components of this system must be built for speed in order to capture the rapidly evolving dynamics of life. Triggering capability to reduce or eliminate software overhead and allow the system to capture at the fastest frame rates achievable by the hardware offers unique value for our work.

Microscope Hardware:

Fully automated inverted microscope platform for live cell imaging studies

Triggerable Transmitted light LED light source for the merging of transmitted light images/TIRF with filter to prevent autofluorescence

Linear encoded XY Stage with joystick and software control for large image tiling and precise multipoint experiments

Fast Piezo-Z Stage with a minimum of 100um travel for the acquisition of fast z-stacks with holders for well plates, slides and Petri dishes 35-65mm.

Stage top environmental incubator chamber with mixer for control of CO2, Humidity and

Temperature with holders for 35mm dishes, Slides, Chamber Slides and Chambered Coverglass samples.

Motorized TIRF with automated control of critical angle for up to 4 laser lines.

Widefield, software-controlled white light LED with individual filter cubes for DAPI/GFP/mCherry in a motorized filter turret.

Objective specifications include:

o 10x Plan Apo 0.45 NA/ 4mm WD o 20x Plan Apo 0.75 NA / 1mm WD o 40x Plan Fluor 1.30 NA oil / 0.20mm WD o 60x Plan Apo 1.40 NA oil / 0.13mm WD o 100x Apo TIRF 1.49 NA oil / 0.12mm WD with Correction Collar

Advanced Imaging Workstation capable of controlling the acquisition and processing of large data sets. Min specs: 8-core Xeon processor, 64 GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD OS Drive, 6GB

Upgraded GPU Video RAM (the upgraded GPU is important)

30” Monitor

36x48’ Vibration Isolation Table, 4” Top

Upgradeability: The microscope should start with a modular optical base that can accommodate any number of additional upgrades. In order to maximize the value of this system and keep it at the cutting edge over the next decade with minimal expenditures, the combined CSU/TIRF/photostimulation system should be built upon a platform that allows in-the-field upgrades to any of the following:

Super-resolution o single molecule localization super-resolution o SIM super-resolution o Hybrid Simultaneous High-resolution Point Scanner/High-speed Resonant Scanner o spectral or multi-photon confocal and dedicated High Content Analysis Tools.

Point Scanning Confocal o spectral confocal o Multi-photon confocal

HCA

o True Integrated High Content Collection and Analysis assays including robotic plate loading

Customizable microscope illumination tools:

o additional wavelength specific TIRF inputs o photostimulation tools o single molecule tracking super-resolution o fast channel switching LED illumination

The selected contractor will also be required to provide installation and training. No government furnished equipment or supplies will be provided to the selected contractor for installation or training.

Installation and training shall be coordinated with the technical end-user, who will be identified in the purchase order, and be conducted during normal business hours (Monday – Friday: 8:00 AM local time – 4:00 PM local time, excluding Federal Holidays).

Evaluation

The government intends to award a single firm-fixed priced (FFP) purchase order to the offeror representing the best value to the government based on the evaluation factors listed below. Evaluation factors are listed in order of importance, with most important listed first. The government will conduct a trade-off between price and non-price factors. The Government is not required to award to the lowest priced offeror or the highest technically rated offeror.

The government reserves the right to award without discussions.

Evaluation Factors (Listed in order of importance):

Technical – Offerors must provide product literature, which demonstrates the capabilities of the quoted item(s). At a minimum the product literature must demonstrate how the quoted item meets the specifications listed above. Information on warranty, installation, training and delivery lead-time must be included in the quote submission and will be evaluated. In addition, offerors are required to provide details on their technical support to include, on-site response time, phone support and what is included in technical support and the duration. The government reserves the right to utilize technical (i.e, trade magazines) and customer reviews/references, if needed, as part of the technical evaluation for the quoted equipment/supply.

Price – Offerors must include all applicable costs (Example: Components, Training, Warranty, Shipping) in their quote. Offerors are encouraged to provide pricing for the following OPTIONAL extended warranty periods. The Government, at award, may choose to include an extended warranty.

One Year Extended Warranty

Two Year Extended Warranty

Three Year Extended Warranty

Four Year Extended Warranty

Five Year Extended Warranty

Past Performance – IAW DFAR subpart 213.106-2, the Government will consider data available in the statistical reporting module of the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS- SR). Offerors without a record of relevant past performance information in PPIRS-SR for the FSC or PSC being procured, will not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably for its past performance history.

Offerors must also submit the following with their quote, if not completed in SAM registration:

Completed copy of provision 252.209-7991

Completed copy of provision 52.209-2

Completed copy of provision 52.209-5

Completed copy of provision 52.209-7

Completed copy of provision 252.225-7020

See attached list for applicable provisions and clauses for this requirement.

Quoted items must be new. Quotes for refurbished equipment will not be considered.

Offerors must also indicate in quote where item is manufactured.

Items will be shipped to Bethesda, MD.

Deadlines:

Questions/clarifications regarding this solicitation must be submitted via email to michelle.creenan@usuhs.edu by July 7, 2016. Any question received after July 7th will not be answered.

Questions will not be answered over the phone or submitted by any other means. All questions will be answered in an amendment to the solicitation posted on or around July 19th.

Quote packages are due by 11:00 PM Eastern Local Time on July 29, 2016. Quotes must be submitted via email to michelle.creenan@usuhs.edu. Quotes will not be accepted by any other means. Late quotes will not be considered. Offerors will receive an email confirmation that they quote was received and whether it was on time or late within two (2) business days.

Quote packages should include a cover sheet that provides the following information:

• Company Name

• Point of Contact, to include email and phone number

• DUNS Number

• Statement that includes acknowledgement of latest amendment number (if applicable). Failure to acknowledge the most recent amendment number, may render an offeror’s quote non-responsive.

• Preferred method of payment (Visa or EFT) mailto:michelle.creenan@usuhs.edu