DHHS, PHS, CDC, NIOSH, ALOSH, 1095 Willowdale Rd., Morgantown, WV 26505-2888

66 -- LASER CAPTURE MICRODISSECTION SYSTEM SOL RQ98-020 DUE 062498 POC Brenda Goodwin, 304/285-5882/Contracting Officer, Rex S. Wolfe, 304/285-5883 THIS IS A COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FORMAT IN SUBPART 12.6, AS SUPPLEMENTED WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION; BIDS ARE BEING REQUESTED AND A WRITTEN SOLICITATION WILL NOT BE ISSUED. This solicitation is issued as Request for Proposal No. RQ98-020. This solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 97-4. The request for quotation is being issued unrestricted under Standard Industrial Classification Code 3841 with a size standard of 500 employees. Delivery is required no later than 30 days after receipt of order. Offers shall be submitted for one each of the following items (Arcturus or functionally equivalent) products which meet the specifications below: (CLIN 001) 1 EACH, PXL-100, PIXCELL Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM) System (includes 4 boxes of transfer film); and (CLIN 002) 1 EACH, ARC-100, PIXCELL Image Archiving Workstation (includes factory- installed ACR 100 software). If any discounts apply they should be included in your offer. SPECIFICATIONS FOR LASER CAPTURE MICRODISSECTION SYSTEM: -- The Government desires a laser dissection system for our molecular cytogenetic research to include equipment capable of dissecting areas as small as a few cells. -- The system must have a hermetically sealed transfer film carrier vacuum hold for clipless slide handling and hands-free transfer film handling mechanics to assure that the sample remains sterile. The system must be able to remove a sample from a glass slide. The slide with the mounted tissue must be held in place with vacuum rather than clips to avoid contamination from slide to slide. The system must have an infrared laser with digital output power control, digital output pulse length control, with a push-button laser capture control. The ability to control the pulse length and the output power over a wide range is important to allow removal of the desired cells without damaging the sample. The minimum range acceptable for laser output power is from 0 to 100mW. The infrared laser is superior because these wavelengths can remove tissue without damage to the sample. Ultraviolet lasers will damage not only the cells being dissected but also the surrounding tissue. The morphology of the dissected cells must be preserved and be non-damaging to surrounding tissue. Push button operation is desired to make the process rapid to avoid degradation of frozen samples. -- The microscope must be a high resolution with a cross-hair pattern in the eyepieces to help center the area to be removed. The resolution of the microscope should be sufficient to view objects of one micron in diameter. -- The system must have at least a 233 MHZ Pentium P2 processor, PCI chipset 82430HX, 512 Pipeline burst external, processor cache, 4.3 GB EIDE hard disk drive, 3.5, 1.44 MB floppy disk drive, 12-24X EIDE CD-ROM drive, 3 COM Etherlink 10/100 TX adapter network card, Matrox Millenium 8MB video card with at least 64 MB RAM for sufficient power to operate the system. The software must be windows based and capable of step-by-step image archiving of entire laser capture microdissection process. The software must be capable of remote laser activation, generation of TIF and JPEG images and display of thumbnail images and text file documentation of each microdissection session. The system shall include at least a one year warranty and 90 days on the laser. EVALUATION FACTORS: Offers will be evaluated on their ability to meet or exceed the stated specifications and demonstrated past performance on contracts of similar size and complexity to this requirement Technical proposals and cost or price are approximately equal in importance. The Government intends to make a single award to the responsible offeror whose proposal conforms to all requirements of the solicitation and is considered the best value to the Government. Offers shall be proposed based on F.O.B. DESTINATION (Morgantown, West Virginia) and the requirements at FAR 52.214.21 "Descriptive Literature" apply. Information provided must clearly demonstrate that all items offered meet or exceed the salient features stated or your offer may be rejected. The following FAR provisions apply to this solicitation: FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors -- Commercial Items; 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions -- Commercial Items and 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders -- Commercial Items. Additionally, the following FAR clauses cited in Clause 52.212-5 are also applicable to this acquisition as follows: 52.222.26 "Equal Opportunity"; 52.222-35 "Affirmative Action for Special Disabled and Vietnam Era Veterans"; 52.222-36 "Affirmative Action for Handicapped Workers"; 52.222-37 "Employment Reports on Special Disabled Veterans and Veterans of Vietnam Era"; 52.225-3 "Buy American Act -- Supplies"; 52.225-18 "European Community Sanctions for End Products." Facsimile submissions are not authorized. SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING TO: DHHS, PHS, CDC, NIOSH, ALOSH, Attn: Brenda Goodwin, 1095 Willowdale Road, Morgantown, WV 26505: (1) original and two copies of a completed SF 1449, signed by an individual authorized to bind the organization; (2) Pricing Schedule for each contract line item and a delivery schedule for each; (3) descriptive literature and other information demonstrating compliance with specification for evaluation purposes; (4) completed Representations and Certifications -- Commercial Items, FAR 52,212-3; (5) Past performance information (include names and addresses of Company/ Government Agency, name and telephone numbers of customer contacts along with contract number, and description of work performed with your offer.) and (6) acknowledgment of solicitation amendments, if any. Offers that fail to furnish the required information, or reject the terms and conditions of the solicitation may be excluded from consideration. Information regarding this notice can be obtained from Brenda Goodwin at (304)285-5882 or by fax at (304) 285-6083. All responsible sources may submit a response, which shall be considered by the Agency. (0149)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0304 19980602\66-0012.SOL)