This is a Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of all qualified sources to perform a potential requirement. This notice is issued to help determine the availability of qualified companies technically capable of meeting the 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. This notice is strictly for research and information purposes only. Background: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation's leading medical research agency. Its 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, conducting, supporting and making medical discoveries that improve people's health and save lives. The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) is a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and requires two robotic screening systems that are very similar in design and function to the two most heavily used screening systems at NCATS; the Kalypsys primary screening system and the Tox21 Robot. Both of these systems are comprised of robotic arms and all of the necessary platform equipment such as external guarding; robotic bases; electrical junction boxes and cabinets and a variety of other components. Associated with the core components of the system are the peripheral devices; ranging from liquid handlers, pin tools, plate incubators and compound storage carousels. All of these associated peripherals coupled with the robotic work cells are what comprise an automated screening system. Various programs and labs within NCATS have been given the directive to perform different types of high throughput screens to evaluate some biological activity and to potentially develop new therapeutics or therapeutic combinations in some cases or in others to determine the relative toxicity of chemical compounds under test. To do this, a biological experiment is performed in the presence of hundreds of thousands of chemical compounds at various concentrations, requiring that millions of samples be tested for each experiment. This requires that these experiments be run in a high density well plate, to both minimize the total reagent volume used per experiment and to facilitate less total plates to be used to perform an entire assay. Typically, one experiment might consist of screening 500,000 compounds at 5 different total concentrations for a total of 2.5M samples. If this experiment is run using a 1536 well plate, meaning 1536 samples can be tested at a time, this requires nearly 1650 plates. The only way to accomplish handling this many well plates for an experiment is high throughput screening (HTS), which requires a high degree of robotic automation. Purpose and Objectives: The purpose of this purchase is to obtain redundant pieces of high throughput screening (HTS) equipment to help mitigate this risk by obtaining the components of the two (2) robotic screening systems that were previously purchased by NCATS. Scope of Work Vendor is responsible for providing the following: • Pintools • Pintool pump stations • Incubators/Carousels • Plate Unloading Stations • System workstations • System decking/support structures • Electrical cabinets and cables • Robotic arms and controllers • Dispensers • Lids • Miscellaneous spare parts All of these components are either exactly the same or a later generation of equipment and will be used to act as enhancements or redundant pieces of equipment for the existing robotic system. Anticipated Period of Performance/Delivery Date: Within 30 days ARO Capability statement /information sought. Contractors that believe they possess the ability to provide the requirement should submit documentation of their ability to meet each of the project requirements to the Contract Specialist. The response should directly and specifically state in the, capabilities statement, which project requirements you can supply. Contractors must also provide their Company Name, DUNS Number, Physical 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 must be in an outline format that addresses each of the elements of the project requirement and in the capability statement /information sought paragraphs stated herein. The response must include the respondents' technical and administrative points of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses. All responses (capability statements) sent in response to this Sources Sought Notice must be submitted electronically (via e-mail) to the Contract Specialist. Facsimile responses are NOT accepted. The response must be submitted to Stacey Polk, Contract Specialist at
[email protected]. The response must be received no later than the close date of this notice. "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)."