Microbrightfield, LLC

Microbrightfield, LLC, doing business as Microbrightfield Inc., supplies advanced microscopy systems, optical instrumentation, data acquisition hardware, and associated software and services to federal agencies primarily as a prime contractor (99% of recent awards), competing full-and-open without set-aside designations. The company, a for-profit limited liability partnership headquartered in Williston, Vermont, operates across NAICS categories dominated by software publishing (72 awards), analytical laboratory instrument manufacturing (25 awards), and optical instrument and lens manufacturing (24 awards), with PSC coding concentrated in laboratory equipment and supplies (62 awards) and information technology software (43 awards).

Microbrightfield's federal customer base centers on the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The National Institute on Drug Abuse leads by both award count and combined potential value (40 awards, $1.8 million), followed by Veterans Integrated Service Network 1 (20 awards, $1.2 million) and the National Institute on Aging (10 awards, $590 thousand). The top five customers by potential value account for 48% of the combined potential value across the portfolio. Recent contract work includes a $171.7 million light sheet microscope system award from the National Institute on Aging (completion September 2027), a $129.8 million Stereoinvestigator microscope system and software upgrade to the Defense Health Agency for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland (completion January 2024), a $96.5 million light sheet fluorescent microscope system purchase order from the National Institute of Mental Health (completion November 2026), a $61.3 million microscope system upgrade for Veterans Integrated Service Network 6 (completion July 2027), and a $47.6 million AxioImager M2 microscope system with Neurolucida 360 and Stereo Investigator software for Veterans Integrated Service Network 7 (completed October 2024). Product and service offerings span confocal microscope scanners, light sheet microscopy platforms, data acquisition systems (vDAQ), specialized software suites (ScanImage, Neurolucida 360, Stereo Investigator, Vesselucida, Neurolucida Explorer), neuroscience imaging consoles, multi-fiber photometry systems, and associated installation, training, and software support.

Microbrightfield also operates as a prime recipient of federal research grants, with three NIH National Institute of Mental Health awards supporting development of advanced neuroimaging technologies: a project grant for volumetric 2-photon imaging of neuroactivity using light beads microscopy (VCAM), originally awarded September 2022 with completion August 2026; a lab-to-marketplace project grant for HyperAxon, an AI-based axonal quantification and classification software tool developed in collaboration with MIT Lincoln Laboratory, originally awarded April 2022 with completion August 2022; and a project grant for the 2P-ActivityScope, a two-photon laser scanning microscope based on scanned line angular projection (SLAP2) technology developed at Janelia Research Campus, originally awarded January 2022 with completion December 2026. In addition, Microbrightfield subcontracts as a software and hardware provider to University of California Irvine on federally funded neuroscience imaging research, customizing ScanImage software and vDAQ data acquisition systems for advanced microscope control and imaging modes under two sub-awards dated January 2024 and December 2024.

The vendor maintains no standing IDIQs or GWACs; recent task orders flow through Veterans Affairs indefinite delivery contracts and vendor-specific blanket purchase agreements. Activity has remained modest and episodic — 11 awards in 2022, 5 in 2023, 10 in 2024, 3 in 2025, and 5 in 2026 to date — with eight awards (combined potential value $473 thousand) reaching completion within the next twenty-four months. The combined potential value across the 245-award prime and sub footprint is $9.3 million; however, combined dollars obligated total $71.8 million, reflecting a portfolio skewed toward prior-year obligated amounts relative to current-year potential values. Work is performed at Microbrightfield's Vermont locations (Williston and St. George).