Inactive

Contracting Office Address National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-1640 This is a Sources Soug... Contracting Office Address National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-1640 This is a Sources Sought Notice ONLY. Requests for copies of a solicitation will not receive a response. This notice is for planning purposes only and is not a Request for Proposal or Request for Quotation or an obligation on the part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for conducting a follow-on acquisition. NIST does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this Notice, or otherwise pay for the information requested. No entitlement or payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by NIST will arise as a result of submission of responses to this Notice and NIST use of such information. NIST recognizes that proprietary components, interfaces and equipment, and clearly mark restricted or proprietary components, interfaces and equipment, and clearly mark restricted or proprietary data and present it as an addendum to the non-restricted/non-proprietary information. In the absence of such identification, NIST will assume to have unlimited rights to all technical data in the information paper. NO SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS EXIST AT THIS TIME. Background: The Biomolecular Measurement Division of NIST is involved in the development of measurement methodologies for the measurement of DNA damage and its repair in living organisms with the aim of understanding disease processes such as carcinogenesis and aging, in which oxidatively induced DNA damage occurs by a variety of mechanisms. This work involves the measurement of DNA lesions and DNA repair proteins in mammalian tissues, cultured cells and human urine by isotope dilution mass spectrometry. For this purpose, stable isotope-labeled DNA and protein standards are developed to be used as internal standards for accurate mass spectrometric measurements. Tandem mass spectrometry is the most widely used technique for such measurements and is frequently coupled to a separation technique such as liquid chromatography or gas chromatography. A tandem mass spectrometer (MS/MS) interfaced with a high-performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC) is employed for the identification and quantification of modified DNA nucleosides and peptides in enzymatic hydrolysates of DNA samples and protein extracts, respectively. An HPLC used for this purpose must be capable of enabling the separation of complex hydrolysates of DNA and proteins isolated from mammalian tissues or cultured cells. Requirement: The analytical instrument to be delivered must function together with our present Thermo LC-MS/MS system using the Thermo Xcalibur software with DCMS Link. This MS/MS system will provide the much-needed high sensitivity for the measurement of modified nucleosides in DNA and in urine, and of peptides in tryptic hydrolysates of DNA repair proteins isolated from human tissues and cultured cells. The Thermo software that will run both the Thermo MS/MS system and the Thermo HPLC system will also enhance our capabilities to process the high load of sample processing in our laboratory. The LC-MS/MS system must work with the Thermo Xcalibur software using DCMS Link. This is absolutely necessary so that the data acquired on our present Thermo LC-MS/MS system will be compatible with the data that will be obtained on the LC-MS/MS system to be purchased. The LC system must be composed of high pressure mixing quaternary pump, thermostatted auto sampler, thermostatted column compartment, and diode array detector. Interested parties shall describe the capabilities of their organization as it relates to the equipment described above. NIST anticipates issuing a Request for Quotation in the third quarter of FY2019, and awarding a contract no later than the fourth quarter of FY2016. NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large and small businesses. The small business size standard associated with the NAICS code for this effort, 334516 is 1,000 employees. Please include your company's size classification and socio-economic status in any response to this notice. After results of this market research are obtained and analyzed, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a contract. Companies that can provide such services are requested to email a written response describing their abilities to donald.graham@nist.gov and no later than the response date for this sources sought notice. The following information is requested to be provided as part of the response to this sources sought notice: 1. Name, Address, DUNS number, CAGE code, and point of contact information of your company. 2. Any information on the company's small business certifications, if applicable. 3. Description of your company's capabilities as they relate to the equipment described in this notice. 4. A description of your company's previous experience providing the equipment described in this notice. 5. Indication of whether the equipment described in this notice are currently offered via your company's GSA Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts, Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), or other existing Government-wide contract vehicles; and, if so, the contract number(s) for those vehicles. 6. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in finalizing its market research. Responses are limited to a total of twelve (12) pages. The responses must be in MS Word format. Pages shall be 8½-inch x 11-inch, using Times New Roman 11 Point Font. Each page shall have adequate margins on each side (at least one inch) of the page. Header/footer information (which does not include any information to be analyzed) may be included in the 1" margin space.