Notice of Intent to Sole Source - Liquid Handling System

THIS NOTICE OF INTENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. This notice is for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government. This procurement will be processed pursuant to FAR part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items and FAR part 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures. No solicitation will be issued.

All responsible sources who believe they can provide the services listed may submit, in writing to the identified point of contact, a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency. Information received will be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. A determination by the Government to compete this proposed contract based on responses to this notice is solely at the discretion of the Government. Responses are to be received within 3 days of this notice. No telephone calls are being accepted.

The United States Department Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Cattle Fever Tick Research Facility in Edinburg, TX has a requirement for a liquid handling system and currently intends to award a firm-fixed price contract to Formulatrix for a Mantis V3.3 with Integrated RFID Chip Changer - 6; Chip capacity and Mantis
Controlling Software Instrument License MCF - Mantis Continuous Flow Option for MANTV3.pressurize bottle dispensing for higher flow rates.  

The location requires a versatile liquid handling system that can miniaturize reagent use for next-generation sequencing sample preparations, cell-based assays, real-time PCR reactions, bead-based assays, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA).  We also need a system that can do all of this consistently, efficiently, and reproducibly regardless of volume, viscosity, temperature, and concentration.  Reducing pipetting errors and variability between samples will better the quality of results in our molecular assays and lower the probability of needing to rerun failed experiments.  We currently do not have the capability to miniaturize our reaction volumes with the accuracy and precision necessary for molecular biology assays.  At CFTRL, we run qPCR, PCR, NGS, ELISA, and bead-based assays. 

The liquid handling system must have a small footprint-- no bigger than 15”x 10”-- as the laboratory does not have a lot of bench space.  It needs to be able to handle volumes from 0.1 ul to 200 ul with a coefficient of variance less than or equal to 1.5%.  The liquid handling system will need to handle different types of plates and set-ups ranging from 6-well plates to 384-well standard plates, but also be able to work with Bio Molecular Systems’ Mic qPCR reaction tubes.  With the ability to handle reaction volumes less than 10 ul consistently and accurately, the lab will be able to run more samples with less variation than manual pipetting.  The cost per sample will also drop with the ability to miniaturize reaction volumes.  Additionally, we would like the liquid handling system not to use pipette tips, and the system needs to be Windows 10 compatible.  NAICS Code is 334516.  Award is in accordance with both 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1) and FAR 13.106-1 (b)(1)(i)