SCANALYZER INSTRUMENT

The USDA, ARS, MSA intends to award a sole source procurement to Lemna Tec Company, Schumanstr. 18, Wuerselen, Germany 52146, as they are the sole source for this type instrument and software pursuant to the authority of 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1) and FAR 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy agency Requirements. The award will be for a Lamnatec Scanalyzer BS, Model LT-0001-BS. An existing Lemnatec Scanalyzer Serial Number 3-188-368-0l will be traded in against the purchase of the new instrument. The Government intends to award a firm fixed price Purchase Order on or about June 8, 2010, using simplified Acquisition Procedures. This Notice of Intent is not considered a Request for Quotation (RFQ) nor is it a Request for Proposals (RFP). No solicitation document is available and telephone requests will not be honored. Interested persons may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The Government will consider all responses received by 4:00PM central time, June 01, 2010. Information received will be considered solely for determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Inquiries will only be accepted via mail to the Contracting Officer at the following address: Contracting Office Address: USDA-ARS-MSA 141 Experiment Station Road Stoneville, MS. 38776-0225 Required Specifications: The instrumentation needed should be able to handle numerous vessels including 50ml to 500 ml containers and multiwall microtiter plates varying in size from 6 wells to 96 wells. The needed equipment should be able to measure individual plant surface areas and total areas in a single well. It should differentiate varying color classifications so that necrosis and chlorosis can be measured and monitored over time. The numbers of individual plant fronds should be able to be determined even if there is overlapping of the plants in the wells. The software would need to make allowances for such problems. Data readout should be in both raw numbers and percentages. Images should be of individual wells and should be stored for later analysis or printing. Other bioassays that will need to be performed with the same instrument would involve use of entire plants or leaves. Lesions and evidence of chlorosis and necrosis on the plant tissue would need to be measured and quantified. This would allow for fungal research applications. The instrument would have to be able to provide differing light intensities from both below and above the plant tissue. A future assay is being developed that will make use of color classifications on a solid substrate. The item to be measured will be the size of a microscope slide, therefore the software associated with analyzing system would have to accommodate a shape other than circular microtiter plate wells. The physical dimensions of the needed instrument would have to allow for placement in limited lab space. The footprint would necessarily have to be 3000 cm2 or less. This excludes the space needed for computer and monitor for the system.