Transmission Electron Microscope for NINDS

This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. If your organization is not a small business, there is no need to respond to this announcement. For purposes of this announcement, a small business concern, in addition to meeting the small business size standard for the applicable NAICS code, is defined as "any business entity organized for profit with a place of business located in the United States or its outlying areas and that makes a significant contribution to the U.S. economy through payment of taxes and/or use of American products, material and/or labor, etc." The purpose of this notice is to obtain Capability Statements from small businesses directly addressing their ability to provide a product that meets all of the Salient Characteristics contained in the Purchase Description. In general, the Government is seeking information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining whether a small business set-aside is possible for this acquisition (or if the acquisition can be further set-aside for one of the socio-economic categories of small businesses). This notice is issued to help determine the availability of qualified companies technically capable of meeting the Government requirement and to determine the method of acquisition. It is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses will not be considered as proposals or quotes. No award will be made as a result of this notice. The Government will NOT be responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice. This notice is strictly for research and information purposes only. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) CODE: The NAICS code applicable to this requirement is 334516 - ANALYTICAL LABORATORY INSTRUMENT MANUFACTURING. The corresponding small business size standard is 1,000 or fewer employees. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation's leading medical research agency and the primary Federal agency whose mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability, conducting, supporting and making medical discoveries that improve people's health and save lives. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), conducting research into the cause, treatment, and prevention of neurological disorders. The NINDS mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease. Statement of Need and Purpose: The purpose of this acquisition is to procure one (1) transmission electron microscope for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Electron Microscopy Facility (EMF). Background Information and Objective: The EMF at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) provides technical support to intramural researchers in conducting research into the causes, treatment, and prevention of neurological disorders. The intramural scientists seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological diseases. A major part of the research activities within the EMF critically depends on transmission electron microscopy, especially emerging capabilities in precision mapping positions of objects (rendering possibilities of correlative LM and EM studies), ease of stitching for making montages, tilting for stereo viewing, and tracing serial sections for 3D reconstruction. Generic Name of Product: Transmission Electron Microscope Quantity: One (1) transmission electron microscope is required. Salient characteristics The NINDS EMF requires one (1) transmission electron microscope that meets the following specifications: 1. The GUI integrated to manage processing must be Windows 10-based and capable of displaying TEM conditions, operation windows, digital camera (where appropriate) and STEM/EDS data. User logon must include a lock-out mechanism using expertise levels ranging from beginners to administrators as well as personalized work environments including assignment of multifunctional knobs/buttons on the knob sets. A touchscreen must be part of the standard configuration. 2. Must provide computer training in the form of a set of tutorials and user guides. They must be designed to help beginners familiarize themselves with microscope operation and assist experienced users to explore advanced functions. Tutorial videos combined with the function-oriented GUI to assist microscopists at all levels of expertise is a desired feature. 3. The specimen rod must have a double o-ring to prevent vacuum leaks through the goniometer. When inserted, the volume between these o-rings is continuously pumped, creating an tight differentially pumped airlock system which will allow the microscope to return to 10-5 Pascal operating vacuum range withing 15 sec of inserting the specimen rod. 4. The microscope must come with a viewing chamber that support the use of binoculars and fluorescent viewing screens. 5. The microscope must have exchangeable polepieces. It must enable lab staff to change polepieces easily with no major realignments required following exchange. High contrast, high resolution and STEM polepieces need to be completely exchangeable to address the needs of a multi-user facility. 6. The microscope must have a cantilever-style, micro-active goniometer with motor driven 5-axis control. The specimen holding system must be tension free and employed for this cantilever-style goniometer for excellent mechanical stability. Stage translation shall be by trackball or mouse. The goniometer must automatically return to stored positions when these positions are selected by the operator. Prior to specimen exchange all five axes must be automatically brought to zero in a single operation. This goniometer is essential for automated operation such as tomography and digital montaging. 7. A quick-change specimen holder must be standard requiring only a tweezer to exchange samples. the specimen rod must accommodate multiple tips for special applications such as tomography and preserving calibration grids. 8. A four-specimen holder must be included. The holder must allow at least four specimens into the column with one insertion of the holder for rapid comparison of grids. 9. The goniometer must tilt up +/-80 degrees to acquire the most complete tomography datasets. No special goniometer should be required for tomography. Dual axis solution must be possible using special-purpose holders. 10. The microscope must have an image orientation system (IOS), which rotates the image +/- 90 degrees in increments of 15 degrees using the imaging lenses (i.e.. independent of a tilt/rotate holder). Thus the best image orientation can be achieved without removing the holder and manipulating the grid. When rotating the image, the stage movement directions must compensate so that the image continues to move along the same original directions. The image size must remain constant when the IOS is operated. 11. The microscope should allow for simple selections of modes such as LOWMAG, MAG and SADIFF using simple switches on the GUI or on the knobsets. Mode switching should not require re-alignment of the column. 12. When changing the high tension the alignment must be automatically recalled at key voltages, i.e. 40, 60, 80, 100 and 120 kV and a voltage as low as 10kV must be possible. 13. A Minimum Dose System (MDS) must be present. It should consist of three independent modes, Search, Focus and Photo. In both the focus and search modes it is possible to observe features surrounding the area of interest with minimal perturbation of the area that will actually be photographed under minimum dose conditions. Optionally, software must be available which supports a graphical mode of setting off-axis conditions and also allows for user-specified lens values. 14. For cryo-EM an anti-contaminator and cryo-shield must be present that achieves an ice contamination rate of no more than 0.5 nm/hr measured from low-dose images of tilted latex beads without significant limiting the field of view. For optimal protection the cryo-shield must completely surround the specimen. 15. The system must be equipped with AMT-BioSprint29L-ActiveVu camera or equivalent. 16. Microscope system should have the ability to interface in GUI with a Matataki Flash camera or equivalent (a sCMOS based camera with 2k x 2k 6.5-m pixels operating at 30 fps). The aforementioned camera is NOT part of this acquisition; please do NOT included pricing for a Matataki Flash or equivalent camera. The only requirement for this acquisition is that the microscope system have the ability to fully interface with such a camera. 17. The vacuum system must be diffusion pump-based. 18. This system must be compatible with software automation packages available such as JADAS, the JEOL Automated Data Acquisition Software, LLP and Picture Overlay. JADAS is a package designed for Single Particle Acquisition (SPA). LLP is Limitless Panorama that offers stage-based montaging to cover the entire grid. Picture Overlay is a software utility that allows for the overlay of a digital image acquired from an optical microscope in CLEM workflows thereby combining the spatio-temporal information from a fluorescence microscope with high-resolution structural data from a TEM. Alternatively, freely available academic-based software such as SerialEM (UC Boulder) and Leginon (NYSBC) must be available. Both these software packages acquire large quantities of high quality data without operator intervention from frozen-hydrated specimens for SPA. Additionally, tomography, montaging and picture overlay are also supported by SerialEM. This software package fully automatically acquires high-quality tilt series at user-specified locations. All software packages geared towards SPA must be capable to acquire high resolution images at user-specified points of interest that are visited using stage movement while maintaining eucentricity, focus and drift below user-specified thresholds. 19. The microscope must be capable of achieving a minimum magnification of 10x and a maximum magnification of 1,200,000x. The minimum magnification in MAG mode must be 200x, thus providing for a large field-of-view without having to switch into LOWMAG mode. Warranty Requirements: The Contractor shall provide a one (1) year warranty on all equipment, parts and repairs. All products shall be warranted to be free from material defects in workmanship or material under normal use and service for warranty period. On-Site Training Requirements: On-site customer training in the use of the equipment is required following installation. Training shall be for up to six (6) individuals and shall have a duration of at least thirty (30) hours. Training must be at the customer site and shall take place between the hours of 8:00am and 5:00pm, Bethesda, MD local prevailing time, Monday through Friday. Delivery Schedule and Location: The Contractor shall deliver and install the required equipment within twenty (20) weeks after receipt of order. Delivery must be FOB Destination and must include inside installation. The equipment shall be delivered and installed between the hours of 8:00am and 5:00pm, Bethesda, MD local prevailing time, Monday-Friday. Equipment shall be delivered to and installed at the NIH Main Campus, Room 3C68, Building 49, located at 49 Convent Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892. Contract Type: A firm fixed price type contract is anticipated for this acquisition. Capability Statement / Information Sought: Small business Contractors that believe they possess the ability to provide the required products should submit documentation of their ability to meet the project requirements, addressing the Salient Characteristics contained in this announcement (a generic marketing brochure would likely not be sufficient to demonstrate a source's capability to meet the stated requirements) to the Contracting Officer. Contractors should also provide their Company Name, DUNS number, Physical Address, and Point of Contact Information and if applicable, Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contract number. Interested organizations are required to identify their type of business, applicable North American Industry Classification System Code, and size standards in accordance with the Small Business Administration definitions and guidelines. Additionally, please indicate the country of manufacture of the product your organization can offer to meet the stated requirements. The government requests that no proprietary or confidential business data be submitted in a response to this notice. However, responses that indicate the information therein is proprietary will be properly safeguarded for Government use only. Capability statements must include the name and telephone number of a point of contact having authority and knowledge to discuss responses with Government representatives. Capability statements in response to this market survey that do not provide sufficient information for evaluation will be considered non-responsive. When submitting this information, please reference the Small Business Sources Sought notice number. All capability statements sent in response to this Small Business Sources Sought Notice must be submitted electronically (via email) to Jason Williams, Contracting Officer, at willjas@nida.nih.gov. All responses must be received by the specified due date and time in order to be considered. The response must be received on or before May 30, 2018 at 5:00 PM EST. Note: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in the response. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your 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 review of the responses received, pre-solicitation and solicitation notices may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. The solicitation release date is pending. The Government intends to negotiate a fixed-price contract.