SOURCES SOUGHT:  THIS IS NOT A NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR QUOTATION BUT INFORMATION AND PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY! 

This notice does not constitute a commitment by the Government.  All information submitted in response to this announcement is voluntary and the Government will not pay for information requested nor will it compensate any respondent for any cost incurred in developing information provided to the Government. The Notice ID number is FA7000QWBI  Western Blotting Imager and shall be used to reference any written responses to this source sought. The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is conducting market research to determine business size and the competition.  The North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS) Code proposed 334516.  This NAICS has a size standard of 1,000 employees.  The requirement is to provide a western blotting imager with the minimum salient characteristics:

• Minimum 2-channel near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent imager capable of producing high-quality Western blots, multi-well plate assays and tissue section images
• Ability to scan gels, membranes, and multiwell plates
• Nucleic acid gels, protein gels, gel shift assays, western blots, cell assays and RNAi assays
• Fluorescence detection, Near infrared (NIR) fluorescence, 2 channel scanning
• Single acquisition (single picture with scanning the whole field and all the channels)
• Sensitive imaging that dynamically adjusts for saturation levels (6-log dynamic range)
• Delivery: FOB Destination to the US Air Force Academy, CO 80840

The Buy American Act will apply to this acquisition.

All interested firms should submit a written capabilities package. Include in your capabilities package your unique SAM number, Cage Code, System for Award Management expiration date, and any related specifications/drawings, literature, and website address, if available, that clearly demonstrates your firm’s capabilities in providing the minimum salient characteristics. We are interested in any size business that is capable of meeting this requirement. Market research is being conducted to determine interest, capability, and socio-economic category of potential sources for the requirement.  The Government requests interested parties submit a brief description of their company's business size (i.e. annual revenues and employee size), business status (i.e., 8(a), Historically Underutilized Business Zone, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, HUBZone small business, womanowned small business, veteran-owned small business, or small business) anticipated teaming arrangements, and a description of similar services offered to the Government and to commercial customers.

Please note:  All contractors doing business with the Federal Government must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) database.  The website for registration is www.sam.gov. Responses may be submitted electronically to the following e-mail addresses:  [email protected]  and [email protected]  Telephone responses will not be accepted.

RESPONSES ARE DUE NO LATER THAN:  12 July 2024, 5:00 PM (MDT). Future information about this acquisition, including issuance of a quotation and/or applicable amendments, will be issued through SAM.gov. Interested parties are responsible for ensuring they have the most up-to-date information regarding this acquisition.