Notice of Intent to Negotiate a Sole Source Contract

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), US Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, NE, intends to negotiate on a sole source basis to Core Proteomics & Metabolomics Facility, Colorado State Univeristy for analysis of meat samples and Salmonella isolates using advanced Mass Spectrometry instruments, techniques, and analyses; under the authority of FAR 6.302-1. This is the only contract core lab facility with the combination of the latest instrumentation (UPLC-MS, GC-MS, and MALDI-TOF MS Biotyper) that is required, expertise and previous experience for both the required sample analyses and statistical analyses of the data generated for both experiments on meat tenderness and Salmonella serotyping. This is the only contract lab with the experience in using metabolomics to find associations with product quality characteristics and developing custom biotyper library for Salmonella serotyping. These analyses have only been developed on the Waters Xevo G2-TOF MS coupled with a Waters Acquity UPLC and separation performed on a UPLC reverse phase column using an acetonitrile linear gradient in combination with Thermo Scientific Trace-ISQ GC-MS system and the Bruker MALDI-TOF MS Biotyper that are available in this core lab facility. This contract core lab analyzes non-targeted data using in-house XCMS and ramclustR based workflows in R and compares the spectra for each LC-MS derived compound against their unique in-house libraries of spectra (~1400 compounds).

This is a notice of intent and is not a request for competitive quotations or proposals. No solicitation is available. Firms that believe they can provide this service are encouraged to identify themselves and provide a substantive statement with descriptive literature and any other supporting information to the Contracting Officer within 10 days of publication of this notice. All information received within 10 days of publication of this synopsis will be considered by the Government to determine if the alternative equipment meets the Government's requirements and is capable of performing the intended task(s). All responses must be in writing and may be faxed to the attention of Donita Furman, fax 402-762-4145, or email at donita.furman@ars.usda.gov. Questions concerning this acquisition must be directed to Donita Furman, email donita.furman@ars.usda.gov.