automated liquid handling system

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), located in Gaithersburg, MD has a requirement for an automated liquid handling system. THIS IS A COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FORMAT IN FAR SUBPART 12.6-STREAMLINED PROCEDURES FOR EVALUATION AND SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS-AS SUPPLEMENTED WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION; QUOTATIONS ARE BEING REQUESTED, AND A SEPARATE WRITTEN SOLICITATION DOCUMENT WILL NOT BE ISSUED. THE SOLICITATION IS BEING ISSUED USING SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF FAR 13.5. This solicitation is a request for quotation. The solicitation document incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-75. The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 334516- Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing. This is an unrestricted full and open competition. 1352.215-72 INQUIRIES (APR 2010) Offerors must submit all questions concerning this solicitation in writing to eric.bubar@nist.gov. Questions should be received no later than 10 calendar days after the issuance date of this solicitation. Any responses to questions will be made in writing, without identification of the questioner, and will be included in an amendment to the solicitation. Even if provided in other form, only the question responses included in the amendment to the solicitation will govern performance of the contract. The backup point of contact is Don Graham at don.graham@nist.gov. (End of Provision) BACKGROUND The Bioanalytical Science Group of the Biomolecular Measurement Division is involved in the development of reference materials, primarily of protein and peptide analytes, for use in the in vitro diagnostics and biologic pharmaceutical industries. This work entails the analytical chemistry characterization of a number of properties of the reference material including concentration, purity, density and post-translational modifications. Analysis of these materials is performed on a variety of instruments including high performance liquid chromatography systems, mass spectrometers and spectrophotometers. One characteristic in common with all of the analyses is the extensive sample preparation which must occur in order to transform the reference material into a form acceptable for analysis. Various techniques of preparation must be performed including solid phase extraction (SPE) for the removal of salts, affinity purification for analyte enrichment, proteolysis to fragment intact proteins for reductive analysis, removal of post-translational modifications such as glycans for further analysis and dilution and mixing functions to prepare calibration solutions. This work is currently performed manually by a scientist using hand devices. As the group moves to validate and certify more materials, larger sets of analysis must be performed which are beyond the capability of an individual scientist to perform manually. The automated liquid handler will be capable of performing automated and precise transfers of liquids and reproducing manual protocols including tasks such as reagent cooling, heated incubations, vacuum manifold (SPE) in both cartridge and microplate formats and at least positive pressure SPE in plate format. See attached document for additional details.