This Small Business Sources Sought Notice (SBSS) is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

The purpose of this Sources Sought Notice is to identify qualified small business concerns including 8(a), HUBZone or Service-Disabled Veteran-owned business concerns that are interested in and capable of performing the work described herein. The NCI does not intend to award a contract on the basis of responses received nor otherwise pay for the preparation of any information submitted. 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 requirement is assigned North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 334516 with a size standard of 500 employees is being considered.

As a result of this Sources Sought Notice, the NCI may issue a Request for Quotation (RFQ) through FedBizOpps. THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. However, should such a requirement materialize, no basis for claims against NCI shall arise as a result of a response to this Sources Sought Notice or the NCI's use of such information as either part of our evaluation process or in developing specifications for any subsequent requirement.

The purpose of this acquisition is to purchase one Zeiss LSM780 NLO laser scanning confocal microscope.

The NCI, CCR, Experimental Immunology Branch (EIB) provides a number of microscopes to support the imaging needs of researchers. The new laser scanning confocal microscope is needed to provide state of the art imaging technologies for EIB researchers, and to replace a 13 year old, and now obsolete, confocal microscope.

The following features are necessary and unique to this particular instrument:

• Inverted Microscope stand with Fully motorized 6 position compatible objective nosepiece and 6 position push and click motorized fluorescence filter turret
• Motorized integrated Z focus with a step size of 10nm and travel range of 25mm
• TFT touch panel independent of microscope stand with focus control and access to all microscope motorized functions. Can be placed conveniently by computer and monitors.
• High Efficiency Hard Coated Shift Free filters for GFP, CY3, DAPI for Standard Visual Fluorescence Imaging.
• High Resolution DC Closed Loop Scanning Stage with Joystick and Integrated Computer Control including Universal Specimen Holder Suitable for variety of slide and round dishes.
• Definite Focus - Integrated focus which maintains focus during long term live cell imaging.

Features of High Sensitivity Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope:

• Must contain a 34-Channel Quasar(Spectral) GaAsP Detector, consisting of calibrated 32-Array GaAsp and two flanking single PMT detectors, enabling image acquisition with freely definable emission spectra and advanced spectral acquisition and analysis Spectral GaAsp detector allows increased QE(>45%) over standard PMT detectors, critical for our low light fluorescence applications.
• System must include the following laser lines 355, 405, 458,488,514,561,594, and 633
• Hardware must support simultaneous acquisition from 34 channels plus TPMT and 2 additional detectors for up to 37 simultaneous 16 bit inputs.
• Spectral GaAsP should allow image collecting in photon counting mode for single molecule applications or integration mode for standard fluorescence imaging.
• Incorporates Primary Dichroioc Beam Splitter(Twin Gate) at 10 degree position, you achieve Extremely HIGH laser suppression on the order of 6-7 OD allowing superb reflection free imaging. The System omits all secondary dichroics for high efficiency emission collection.
• Point Scanner must obtain at least 8 fps at 512x512 and e.g. 250 fps at 512x16
• Digital gain (noise free contrast enhancement prior to bit depth conversion).in addition to standard master gain pedestal.
• Free selection of emission bands for detection, omitting secondary dichroics or emission filters. Must be possible to set the emission bands over laser lines and still have efficient laser blocking to obtain superior signal to noise with low light fluorescent samples.
• Freely rotatable scan field (0-360 degree in 0.1° steps) with user definable size and shape due to independent galvo-mirrors.
• Multiple (up to 99) freely definable real regions of interest (rROIs). Pixel precise control of the laser intensity and signal detection. Prevention of photo damage outside the rROIs boundaries necessary for work on living cells, FRAP, uncaging, photoactivation and photoconversion experiments.
• Individual AOTF settings (line selection and attenuation) per rROI.
• System must offer at least 14 different scan speed levels (28 levels including bi-directional scans) for the wide variety of specimens and applications we will design. This is especially critical for our single molecule experiments.
• It must be possible to select different scan speeds for bleach ROIs and image frame.
• Variable scan field size (hardware-zoom) from 0.6 to 40 in 0.1 steps for magnifications until the optical limits of resolution, with a scan field of 20 mm diagonally in the intermediate image plane.
• Image format from 4x1 to 6144x6144 pixels in up to 35 detection channels simultaneously with up to 16 bit depth (65536 gray values) in all channels. (8, 12 OR 16 bit user selectable bit depth.)
• Multitracking for the prevention of cross-talk by linewise or framewise switching of the laser excitation line, essential for multi-fluorescence applications and co-localization studies.
• Advanced time-series module with automatic bleach and direct trigger-control to design the entire experimental protocol. All scan strategies can be applied (line, spline, frame, z-line, z-spline, z-stack, rROIs, z-rROIs) in the time series.
• Absolute linear scanner movement to ensure equal pixel dwell-times as a prerequisite for any quantitative studies.
• Calibration and linearization of the 32-Array GaAsp detector and the two flanking single PMTs, all 34-channels can be used for spectral acquisition and analysis.
• 34-Channel GaAsP detector (GaAsp-array with 32 PMTs and two flanking single PMTs) in combination with the highly efficient holographic grating to provide an even spectral dispersion over the entire visual spectral range.
• Spectral recycling loop efficiently recovers non-separated light, redirecting it onto the holographic grating.
• Fast parallel acquisition in one single scan of the entire spectral range as a lambda stack (391-749 nm) covered by the 34-Channel QUASAR Detector. (Suitable for spectral analysis in living cells, e.g. colocalization studies and FRET-experiments). Up to 10 different fluorescent dyes can be imaged and separated simultaneously.
• Spectral bandwidth for lambda stack acquisition to be selectable by the user. A full spectral image is used for unmixing (suitable for spectral imaging of living cells and later unmixing without any spectral distortions).
• Reproducible high resolution spectral data acquisition with 3.2 nm or 4.9 nm steps through sequential spectral scanning in addition to the 10nm parallel spectral scanning.
• Online Fingerprinting: Image channel definition not by emission bands but by reference spectra and live processing unmixing during image acquisition.
• Spectra that can be created from a Lambda stack.
• Free combination of manually defined, automatically extracted and spectra stored in the database is possible to perform unmixing on a lambda stack.
• Potential to use the entire emission spectrum for dyes for detecting with much higher signal to noise ratios (in contrast to detection with bandpass techniques).
• Optics designed for high transmission and aberration free imaging across the near UV to visible range, 350 - 1100 nm.
• Light sensitive external BiG GAsP NDD detector for multi-photon imaging
• Filter set BiG+ for green-red NLO imaging
• Beam routing optics for NLO imaging using Coherent Chamaleon Vision II laser
• Acquisition software includes multi-time/dimensional acquisition with multi-parametric experiment designer and both tile and position array settings.
• Must include at least a 12 months warranty on parts and labor
• Parts must be compatible with currently owned Zeiss AxioObserver Z1 wide-field microscope.

How to Submit a Response:

1. Page Limitations:

Interested qualified small business organizations should submit a tailored capability statement for this requirement not to exceed 10 single sided pages including all attachments, resumes, charts, etc. (single spaced, 12 point font minimum) that clearly details the ability to perform the requirements of the notice described above. All proprietary information should be marked as such. Responses should include a minimum of a two pages demonstrating experience over the past two years meeting the requirements of this notice. Statements should also include an indication of current certified small business status; this indication should be clearly marked on the first page of your capability statement (preferable placed under the eligible small business concern's name and address). Responses will be reviewed only by NIH personnel and will be held in a confidential manner.

2. Due Date:

Capability statements are due no later than 11:00 am. EST on July 17, 2014.

3. Delivery Point:

All information furnished must be in writing and must contain sufficient detail to allow the NCI to determine if it can meet the unique specifications described herein. Written responses can be emailed to Reyes Rodriguez Contract Specialist at [email protected] or mailed to the address located under Point of Contact. All questions must be in writing and can be faxed to (240) 276-5399 or emailed. A determination by the Government not to compete this requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. In order to receive an award, contractors must have valid registration and certification in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) and the Online Representations and Certifications Applications (ORCA), through sam.gov. No collect calls will be accepted. Please reference number SBSS-N02RC42572-57 on all correspondence.

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, an RFQ may be published on FedBizOpps. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation(s).

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