United States - High-Throughput Mass Spectrometer system

Description

Added: Jun 12, 2019 1:42 pm

This is a Small Business Sources Sought (SBSS) notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice.

This notice is issued to help determine the availability and type of qualified Small Business companies technically capable of meeting this potential government requirement and to determine the method of acquisition. It is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses will not be considered as proposals or quotes. No award will be made as a result of this notice. The Government will NOT be responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice. The notice is strictly for research and information purposes only.

The information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method including small business socio-economic set-aside possibilities and to determine the availability of qualified Small Business companies technically capable of meeting the Government's potential requirement. All Small Business companies with the capability and availability to perform the requirement under the applicable NAICS code are invited to submit a response to this notice.
NORTH AMERICAN CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS) CODE
The NAICS code applicable to this requirement is 334516 Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing with size standard 1000 employees.
BACKGROUND
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation's leading medical research agency and the primary Federal agency whose mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) is a translational science center whose mission is to catalyze the generation of innovative methods and technologies that will enhance the development, testing and implementation of diagnostics and therapeutics across a wide range of human diseases and conditions.
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. Several programs within NCATS require a next generation automated instrumentation system that allows for the rapid measurement of chemical and biological samples ranging from small molecules to large proteins. The most direct and rapid means to do so is by measuring test compounds and associated metabolic intermediates based upon their molecular weight making a mass spectrometer an ideal solution. NCATS analytical chemistry groups require the rapid identification of small molecules for quality control purposes, which is critical to ensure that compound libraries used in NCATS screening operations are accurate. Biology and assay development researchers at NCATS require the rapid measurement of the effect of small molecules on biological systems without the need for traditional labeling techniques such as the use of fluorescence probes of antibodies while also reducing the total sample volume, greatly reducing the cost required to run an HTS screen. The potential requirement will be designed as a workstation to enable rapid profiling of target biochemistry across lead matter. This will provide NCATS' biologists with an entry point into 'systems biology' and omics profiling of lead/probe biochemistry (i.e. metabolomics, fluxomics, proteomics and lipidomics), and thereby add significantly to NCATS tool kit in pursuit of next generations therapeutics.
Purpose and Objectives
This Small Business Sources Sought notice seeks to determine eligible sources capable of achieving the essential features of this potential requirement, which is to obtain a High-Throughput Mass Spectrometer (MS) to enable the wide scope for detection and quantification of chemical compounds at NCATS on a Brand-Name-or-Equal basis to the QTRAP(R) 6500+ LC-MS/MS System manufactured by AB Sciex, LLC located at 1201 Radio Rd, Redwood City, CA 94065-1217.
Project Requirements
Offerors submitting a response to this Small Business Sources Sought notice shall possess the ability to achieve the essential government features specified herein. Products offered must include those salient physical, functional, or other characteristics of the QTRAP(R) 6500+ LC-MS/MS System, and accessories, manufactured by AB Sciex, LLC, which are deemed essential in meeting the government's needs. Additionally, the mass spectometer needs to work seamlessly with existing NCATS equipment for direct acoustic injection such as from the existing ATS-100 Acoustic Liquid Dispensing Transfer System manufactured by EDC Biosystems.

Specifically, the following are considered essential features of this potential requirement:
Spectrometer:
1. The instrument is a hybrid triple quadrupole linear trap mass spectrometer instrument
2. The instrument is capable of using a differential ion mobility spectrometry device used for applications requiring the separation of isobaric species, isolation of challenging co-eluting contaminants and reduction of high background noise.
3. The instrument has an ionization source capable of handling 5uL/min to 3mL/min flow rates.
4. The instrument has an ionization source capable of handling 0.5uL/min to 200uL/min flow rates.
5. The instrument has a mass range (m/z) of 5-2000 Da in triple quadrupole mode.
6. The instrument has a mass range (m/z) of 50-2000 Da in linear ion trap mode.
7. The instrument has a maximum scan speed of 12,000 Da/sec in triple quadrupole mode and 20,000 Da/sec in linear ion trap mode.
8. The instrument has a polarity switching time between positive and negative ionization of no more than 5ms.
9. Using the the MRM3 transition of 609.3/397/365 for a 50 fg reserpine injection the instrument has a S/N > 150:1 where the noise is defined as the standard deviation of the baseline without smoothing. For 10 replicate injections under these conditions, the standard deviation of the peak area is less than 5%.
10. The instrument has a dynamic range of 6 orders of magnitude.
11. The instrument has mass stability of 0.1 amu over 8 hrs at m/z 906.7 with normal operating temperature and after it has reached vacuum and electronics equilibrium.
12. The instrument has full scan MS and selected ion monitoring for both Q1 and Q3, Product Ion Scan, Precursor Ion Scan, Neutral Loss or Gain Scan, Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM), Enhanced MS Scan, Enhanced Product Ion Scan, Enhanced Resolution Scan, MS3 scan, MRM3 Scan, and TripleTrapTM Scan Modes.
13. The instrument has the capability to perform electrospray ionization and atmospheric
14. pressure chemical ionization and photo ionization in both the positive and negative ion modes.
Mass Spectrometer:
1. Provides scan speed required for advanced data-dependent scanning modes (useful in proteomics, lipidomics and metabolomics application) along with sensitivity for wide range of small molecule screening applications
2. The associated differential mobility device allows additional-dimensions of selectivity to be applied on the fly during LC/MS/MS analyses.
3. Equipment must be warrantied in accordance with manufacturer standard commercial warranty practice to include one no-cost preventive maintenance visit in one year warranty period.
LC System:
1. The system is UHPLC capable to at least 15K psi.
2. The system has 4 discrete LC channels that can be addressed in random sequence
3. The system has 8 valves with flexibility to configure 6-8 valves as 2-position (4, 6 and 10port) and/or 2 multi-position (4-port/position) valves.
4. The system is capable of processing two eluent streams simultaneously (dual-stream) for increased throughput in LC gradient applications.
5. The system can perform automated optimization of both LC and MRM conditions.
6. The system can store optimized LC and MRM conditions in enterprise capable database.
7. The system can support multiply-injected and singly-injected file/data acquisition modes.
8. The system has capacity for 10-plates (96- or 384- well) in open deck configuration with software amenable to cross plate sampling sequences.
9. The overall LC system volume is less than 0.5uL (compatible with microflow (1-5uL/min) LC/MS analysis).
10. The LC system is UHPLC capable and support throughput of <15 sec/sample for 'trap and elute' methods, and 15-30sec/sample for multi-plexed LC gradient separations methods. The system is capable of quantifications of 10s to 100s of metabolic intermediates per run. These features provide versatility for use across biological research in screening applications.
Supported by Software specfiications, or equal to:
1. Possessing automated routines to guide LC methods development and MRM signal optimization.
2. Capable to store methods in central SQL server database (or similar)
3. Allows sample batches to be analyzed in terms of data collection and data analysis and export to LIMS as appropriate.
4. Imports batch files from eLNS and similar text file based formats
5. Is Enterprise capable by supporting multiply-injected file data acquisition and can review and export results for 5-10k samples analyses within 30min for drug discovery screening.
Products offered must be essentially equal to the high-throughput mass spectrometer described in this solicitation, which specifically includes the following manufacturer part number, product description and quantity:
5039926 SCIEX QTRAP 6500+ SYSTEM 1
4406127 PPGs Chemical Standards Kit (Low-High Concentratio 1
4376887 FG,TRIAZINE STANDARD MIXTURE 1
4376878 FG, SYNERGI 4U FUSION RP80A 50X2 1
5039929 SELEXION+ DEVICE KIT FOR 6500+ 1
4465788 SelexION Calibration Solution 1
5051972 SCIEX OPTIFLOW TURBO V SOURCE MICRO BUNDLE 1
5056702 SCIEX WELCOME GIFT BOX 1
TRNLP003 SCIEXUniversity- Success Master 1
1023559 OPT* AGILENT1200 INSTANT PILOT 2
5039523 1290 INFINITY II HIGH SPEED PUMP 1300 BAR 2
EXP-US1-1 600 LS-I AUTOSAMPLER 1
EXP-US1-1 601 LS-I CART WITH NESTED MASS SPEC CART 1
EXP-US1-1 684 SOUND ANALYTICS COOLING DECK W/10 ADAPTER PLATES 1
EXP-US1-1 685 SOUND ANALYTICS PROLAB ZIRCONIUM UHPLC ULTRA MICR 1
EXP-US1-1 602 INSTALLATION AND TRAINING (ON-SITE, 3 DAYS) 1
5029466 UPS POWERVAR 5.2kVA-NA 1
CAPABILITY STATEMENTS/INFORMATION SOUGHT
Interested parties are expected to review this notice to familiarize itself with the requirements of this project. Failure to do so will be at your firm's own risk.
Respondents must provide, as part of their response: (a) product, catalog, model, and/or part number(s); (b) product description; (c) all relevant information and documentation that the item(s) offered meets the salient physical, functional, or performance characteristics as specified in this announcement; (d) quantity; (e) shipping, handling, and/or installation instructions, and/or any special delivery conditions after receipt of an order.
Respondents that believe that they are manufacturers or authorized re-sellers of the equipment specified in this announcement must provide, as part of their response: (a) product, catalog, model, and/or part number(s); (b) product description; (c) all relevant information and documentation that the item(s) offered meets the salient physical, functional, or performance characteristics as specified in the purchase description; (d) quantity; (e) estimated price or cost; (f) shipping, handling, and/or installation charges; and delivery date after receipt of order.
The respondent must also provide their DUNS number, organization name, address, point of contact, and size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HubZone, etc.) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code and any other information that may be helpful in developing or finalizing the acquisition requirements.
The information submitted must be in outline format that addresses each of the elements of this requirement. A cover page and an executive summary may be included but is not required.

The response is limited to ten (10) pages. The 10-page limit does not include the cover page, executive summary, or references, if requested.
The response must include the respondents' technical and administrative points of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses.

Respondents must reference the subject announcement number on all correspondence related to this Small Business Sources Sought notice. The response must be submitted to Hunter Tjugum electronically, at hunter.tjugum@nih.gov, and be received prior to the closing date specified in this announcement.
CONCLUDING STATEMENTS
Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.
Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).

Opportunity closing date

22 June 2019

Value of contract

to be confirmed