Mass Cytometry Imaging System for Mass Cytometers

(i) This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6 as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued.
(ii) The solicitation number is NIHDA201800405 and the solicitation is issued as a Request for Quotation (RFQ) on a Full and Open competitive basis. This acquisition is for a commercial item or service and is conducted under the authority of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13-Simplified Acquisition Procedures; FAR Subpart 13.5-Test Program for Certain Commercial Items; and FAR Part 12-Acquisition of Commercial Items, and is expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold of $250,000.00. A Fixed-Price type of contract is contemplated for any resulting contract entered into as a result of this solicitation.
(iii) The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) Number/Effective Date: 2005-99-1 July 16, 2018.
(iv) The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 334516 Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing with size standard 1,000 employees.
(v) Background

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was officially established in fiscal year 2012 to transform the translational science process so that new treatments and cures for disease can be delivered to patients faster. NCATS, one of 27 Institutes and Centers (ICs) at NIH, strives to develop innovations to reduce, remove or bypass costly and time-consuming bottlenecks in the translational research pipeline in an effort to speed the delivery of new drugs, diagnostics and medical devices to patients.

The Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation (DPI) at NCATS plans, conducts and uses both internal and contract resources to advance collaborative research projects across the pre-clinical phases of the translational science spectrum. Specifically, this division: Plans, conducts and collaborates on research to develop new methods and technologies to enhance pre-clinical processes; Plans, conducts and collaborates on research to evaluate existing and developing approaches, technologies, and processes in the pre-clinical spectrum; Supports training programs relevant to pre-clinical phases of translational science; Allocates DPI resources to pre-clinical extramural and intramural investigators; Collaborates with other NIH Institutes and Centers and the scientists they support; Consults with stakeholders, including patients, industry and regulators.

The Stem Cell Translation Laboratory (SCTL) is a new state-of-the-art research facility within the DPI and is dedicated to addressing the scientific and technological challenges in the induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) field. The progress made in stem cell biology over the past decade has opened up many new possibilities for basic and translational scientists worldwide. iPSCs are particularly useful because scientists can differentiate them into many cell types to use for research or therapies.

NCATS purchased one (1) Helios CyTOF (Mass Cytometer) System from Fluidigm Corporation, located at 7000 Shoreline Court, San Francisco, CA, 94080, on September 27, 2016 via contract award no. HHSN271201600050A. SCTL has a requirement to purchase, on a Brand-Name or Equal basis, quantity one (1) Mass Cytometry Imaging System for mass cytometers, to the Hyperion Imaging System Package for Mass Cytometers, to be efficiently operable with the existing Helios CyTOF System manufactured by the Fluidigm Corporation.

The Hyperion Imaging System manufactured by the Fluidigm Corporation is a high-parameter imaging system capable of analyzing up to 50 individual parameters at single-cell resolution in tissue sections, including protein markers at subcellular resolution in fixed tissue sections and cell smears. The Hyperion Imaging System Package for Mass Cytometers is comprised of a Hyperion Tissue Imager, a Helios and the Hyperion software for data acquisition and visualization. This system will allow SCTL to study the effects of multi-cell type micro-environment, spatial relationships to the differentiation process, and cell fate commitment. During organismal development, a cell's location determines its exposure to growth factors and interaction with adjacent cells. SCTL scientists will also gain the added availability to record spatial information including cell morphology, localization, and cell interactions of the microenvironments. As a result, SCTL scientists will be able to perform highly parallelized epitope analysis (multiplex up to 50 target proteins). Metal-labeled antibodies results in no background signals and the linear dynamic range is at least 5 orders of magnitude. The Hyperion Imaging System is an imaging-based cytometry that provides highly sensitive marker expression signals using metal-labeled antibodies and is capable of recording the spatial information of tissue or multi-cell types culture and can simultaneously measure up to 50 protein marker expression at single cell level with the information of cell location.

Purpose and Objective: The purpose of this requirement is to obtain a Mass Cytometry Imaging System for Mass Cytometers in accordance with the specifications described in this notice, on a Brand-Name-Or-Equal basis to the Hyperion Imaging System manufactured by the Fluidigm Corporation including the Part Numbers, or equal, and Salient Characteristics needing to be achieved. The Imaging System Package for Mass Cytometers will allow SCTL scientists to perform image analysis, as well as integrated single-cell proteomics (CyTOF measurements) with image-based spatial information to investigate spatial and phenotype interaction at the single cell level. The subject supply shall be warrantied in accordance with the Offeror's standard commercial warranty practices.

The Mass Cytometry Imaging System for Mass Cytometers must 1) provide detailed quality control (QC) standards to define pluripotency and differentiated cell types; 2) use multi-omics methods to assess molecular and cellular variations/signatures in cellular phenotypes derived from iPSCs; 3) develop standardized methods for producing mature cells from iPSCs that meet QC and reproducibility standards; and 4) discover, validate and disseminate small molecule reagents to replace expensive recombinant proteins, xenogenic material and undefined media components in cell differentiation protocols.

SCTL scientists will be able to deeply interrogate tissues and tumors at subcellular resolution while preserving the information in tissue architecture and cellular morphology to uncover new biomarker correlations and cell interactions. This allows researchers to detect discrete signals from each ionized metal tag based on differences in mass instead of wavelength at 1 Da resolution, and in contrast to fluorescence results, get uniform staining with minimal background.

Product Description: Products offered must include those salient physical, functional, or other characteristics that are deemed essential in meeting the government's needs. Specifically, the following are considered the salient characteristics for this requirement:

Mass Cytometry Imaging System Package for Mass Cytometers including Computer and Software and tissue imager that includes Nd:YAG deep UV solid state laser for ablation at 20Hz (tuning only), and 100/200Hz (ablation);

Optical system with UV focusing components of laser source to < 1um2 ablation spot size;

Ablation chamber with a sample slide positioning stage for sub-micron positioning accuracy and Coupling system for connection between the Tissue Imager and the Helios for transferring ablated sample streams to the ICP for analysis.

The Imaging System Package for Mass Cytometers shall consist of the following technical specifications:

Power: 200 VA;
Operating voltage: 100-240 VAC;
Operating frequency: 50/60 Hz;
Power dissipation, full load:.