66 -- Upgrade Existing Densitometer

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Southern Plains Area, Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerrville, Texas intends to award to Bio Rad Life Sciences located at 2000 Alfred Nobel Drive, Hercules, California 94547 . This is a sole source procurement under the authority of FAR 6.302-1, Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements in the case of a follow-on contract. The research unit has a need to upgrade and existing densitometer. Research is being conducting proteomics research on Boophilus ticks and requires an automated 2-dimensional gel spot cutter and gel documentation system which can interface with existing PD Quest software and be utilized for silver stained or SYPRO RUBY stained 2-dimensional gels. The interfaced spot cutter will differentially analyze data from user defined gels and automatically select spots for mass spec analysis. Spot targeting is directed from the JPD Quest software. The cutter will perform 100 spot cuts and deposits in 30 minutes with >95% spot pickup on the first cut as directed by user defined criteria in the PD Quest software. The Versa-doc system, with a transillumination area of 25 X 25 cm and 1536 X 1024 pixel array size, images the 2-dimensional gels (silver, Coomassie or SYPRO stained) with a CCD camera and exports the gel image to the PD Quest software for analysis. Questions should be received within 14 calendar days of this published notification. Questions may be directed to : Michael Downing, Contracting Officer at (979) 260-9446 or Fax: (979) 260-9413.