COVARIS-E220 Focused UltraSonicator

This contract action is for the acquisition of supplies for which the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under the authority of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 13.106-1(b)(1). The National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS), Office of Acquisitions (OA) intends to award a single source purchase order to Covaris, Inc., 14 Gill Street, Unit H, Woburn, MA 01801-1721, for the acquisition of a E220 Focused UltraSonicator Instrument. It has been determined that Covaris, Inc., is the only known responsible source capable of providing the required instrument and no other instrument will satisfy the agency's requirements.

The anticipated delivery time is 2-8 Weeks, ARO.

The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 335999 "All Other Miscellaneous Electrical Equipment and Component Manufacturing". Its associated Business Size Standard is 500 employees.

The Covaris 220 Focused UltraSonicator, is the only instrument available that provides Adaptive Focused Acoustics (AFA) technology. AFA is an integral part for processing non-discrimination DNA samples for NGS sequencing. Acoustic disruption of tissue samples and cells is accomplished using ultrasonic energy at 500 KHz. In contrast to mechanical methods (mortar/pestle, polytron, bead-beaters) and probe sonicators, the sample never comes into contact with a mechanical device thus eliminating sample loss and cross contamination. The Covaris E220-Focused-Ultrasonicator has special features that create the highest quality material for NextGen Sequencing library generation which in turn give the best results and highest amount of usable data.
The Covaris instrument is the excepted standard by researchers worldwide for the performance of shearing of DNA for creating NextGen libraries. The system frequency must be within the ultrasonic range (wavelengths on average less then 1mm in length), and thus outside the human audible range. This is essential so that the instrument can be operated in a general laboratory bench setting without extra expense for system enclosures to ensure proper ear protection.

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