66-- Core Lab Svcs

The South Texas Veterans Health Care System/Audie L. Murphy Division San Antonio, TX is seeking Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB) or Small Business (SB) sources capable of meeting the requirement listed below. The acquisition will be accomplished using commercial item procedures in accordance with FAR Part 13. NOTE: TO QUALIFY SDVOSB AND VOSB VENDORS MUST BE CERTIFIED IN THE VA VENDOR INFORMATION PAGES (VIP) DATABASE. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is 541380. Any SDVOSB, VOSB or Small Business firms who wish to identify their interests and capability to provide this service must provide information by notifying the Contract Specialist no later than 5:00 PM Central Time Aug 31, 2018. Notification shall be e-mailed to Phil Campos, at contact@example.gov. DISCLAIMER This Source Sought Notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this Notice that is marked as proprietary will be handled accordingly. In accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation, responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this Notice. SCOPE: STATEMENT OF WORK Research & Development Service South Texas Veterans Health Care System/Audie L. Murphy Division (STVHCS/ALMD) San Antonio, TX General: Request research laboratory core services from laboratory services facilities regarding support in translational research including pre-analytical bio-specimen single cell processing and isolation procedures as well as analytical technologies that deliver systems-oriented perspective on the composition of a sample. These labs should be equipped with equipment such as Luminex bead arrays, high throughput pyrosequencing and WES capillary Westerns. These platforms must also include immunofluorescence micromanipulator manual single cell isolation, DEPArray automated single cell isolation, Bio-mark microfluidic PCR and atomic force microscopy. Flow-Cytometry equipment and analysis must include: 13-color FACSAria-IIIu cell sorter; 14-color MoFlo Astrios cell sorter; 11-color LSR-II cell analyzer; 12-color FACSCelesta cell analyzer; 4-color FACSCalibur cell analyzer; dedicated computers for data analysis. Mass Spectrometry CORE Lab services must include; molecular mass determination, protein identification, protein quantification, sequence characterization peptides, localization of sites of posttranslational modification, metabolomics (discovery and targeted); gas chromatography/mass spectrometry; 1-D and 2-D gel electrophoresis. Cellular and Structural Anatomy (CSA) laboratory analysis must include equipment such as the Life Technologies Ion Torrent PGM sequencer, Illumina BeadXpress system, Illumina iScan Microarray scanner; applied Biosystems 7900HT sequence detection system, taqman low density array thermal cycling block, Agilent bioanalyzer, nanodrop spectrophotometer. Labs must be available during the period of October 1, 2018 through September 30, 2019 to include option years through 2022. Description of Work: Investigators requiring research laboratory services for cell and sample analysis must have the capability to access interfacing software provided by the vendor to monitor job status and billing information regarding their laboratory accounts and the outcomes of their requested analysis. Departmental investigators should also have access to pull financial statements directly from the system providing their sample analysis. Analysis of research samples are related to an investigator s VA project. Analysis outcomes must include pictures or written analysis to provide data to VA investigators to determine outcomes in support of their research hypothesis. Qualifications: The core laboratories services provide a critical need for Research Investigators. The laboratories and facilities are located on campus. These types of services are used daily in most research laboratories. The research services and education are provided by internationally-recognized faculty advisors and expert technical staff, making valuable research partners. Working with our academic affiliate keeps fees for these services very reasonable and affordable to VA funded researchers who usually have a very limited research budget. Using another offsite core lab would increase costs and seriously damage samples being shipped to and from the offsite facility. To delay the use of these core labs would cause investigators and/or their lab personnel to fail meeting their project deadlines thus increasing the risk of losing future funding. All experiments need to be completed within a strict window of time to achieve specific outcomes supporting an investigator s hypothesis. Animals are sacrificed daily which makes their blood and tissue samples limited and time sensitive. The advantage of using a local core lab is the convenience of being in the same building and processing samples the same day to avoid the time sensitive and temperature issues with the tissues and cells. Most of these animals are bred for years in order to obtain mature tissues and cells for testing and to develop results needed to obtain a project s goal. Administrative: No VA administration staff is needed for this service. Hours of Performance: Monday through Friday, 8am to 5:00 pm, excluding weekends and holidays. Specific Tasks: Core laboratory services needed must include: Cytogenetics; Electron Microscopy; Flow Cytometry; Fungus testing; Histopathology; and Molecular Diagnostics. Biobanking and Genome analysis; Optical Imaging; Imaging Facility Core Single-Cell processing; Biobanking and Genome analysis; Biomolecular NMR; Flow Cytometry; Macromolecular Interactions; Mass Spectrometry; MicroCT; Optical Imaging; and X-RAY Crystallography. Information technology security requirements (appendix B VA security clause 852.273-75 statement): The contractor, their personnel, and their subcontractors shall be subject to the Federal laws, regulations, standards, and VA Directives and Handbooks regarding information and information system security as delineated in this contract. It should be noted that the University of Texas Health Science Center, has already met all the information security requirements as outlined in VA HANDBOOK 6500. 6 and in Appendix A, B and C (handbook version March 12, 2010) and have been approved by the VA Research and Development Office and the VA Office of Information Technology/ Information Security Officer (ISO). They comply with all Federal laws and regulations the VA has developed when VA sensitive information is accessed, used, stored, generated, transmitted, or exchanged by and between VA and a contractor. The information made available to the contractor by VA for the performance of this contract will be used only for the purposes of this research and will not be used in any other way without the prior written agreement of the VA. Information Systems Officer, Information Protection: The Service Provider will not have access to VA Desktop computers nor will he have access to online resources belonging to the government while conducting services in the application of complex adaptive system theory to health care organizations. Privacy Officer: Service Provider will not have access to Patient Health Information (PHI) nor will he have the capability of accessing patient information during the services provided to the VA. Records Manager: There will be no federal records created, maintained, used or dispositioned with this contract; regardless of format [paper, electronic, etc.] or mode of transmission [e-mail, fax, etc.].