Upgrade of existing High Throughput Screening Platform

PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE OF INTENT NON-COMPETITIVEINTRODUCTIONPURSUANT TO FAR Subpart 5.2—Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions, THIS IS A PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE OF A PROPOSED CONTRACT TO ACTION.   THIS IS A PRE-SOLICITATION NON-COMPETITIVE NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD A CONTRACT OR PURCHASE ORDER WITHOUT PROVIDING FOR FULL OR OPEN COMPETITION (INCLUDING BRAND-NAME). National Institutes of Health, NCATS requires an upgrade to a current robotic screening platform to increase the capabilities of their robotics to allow for Labcyte (now Beckman) acoustic dispensing, automated mass spec screening and calcium channel screening.NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS) CODEThe intended procurement is classified under NAICS Code 334516: Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing with a Size Standard of 1000 Employees.REGULATORY AUTHORITY The resultant contract will include all applicable provisions and clauses of the Federal acquisition Requlation (FAR) in effect through the

Federal Acquisition Circular 2020-07, dated 2 Jul 2020.STATUTORY AUTHORITY This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13—Simplified Acquisition Procedures, Subpart 13.106-1(b)(1), Soliciting from a single source.DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENT Project DescriptionThere are heavily used robotic screening systems systems at NCATS; the Kalypsys primary screening system and the Tox21 Robot.  Both of these systems are comprised of robotic arms and all of the necessary platform equipment such as external guarding; robotic bases; electrical junction boxes and cabinets and a variety of other components.  Associated with the core components of the system are the peripheral devices; ranging from liquid handlers, pin tools, plate incubators and compound storage carousels.  All of these associated peripherals coupled with the robotic work cells are what comprise an automated screening system.Various programs and labs within NCATS have been given the directive to perform different types of high throughput screens to evaluate some biological activity and to potentially develop new therapeutics or therapeutic combinations in some cases or in others to determine the relative toxicity of chemical compounds under test.  To do this, a biological experiment is performed in the presence of hundreds of thousands of chemical compounds at various concentrations, requiring that millions of samples be tested for each experiment. This requires that these experiments be run in a high density well plate, to both minimize the total reagent volume used per experiment and to facilitate less total plates to be used to perform an entire assay. Typically, one experiment might consist of screening 500,000 compounds at 5 different total concentrations for a total of 2.5M samples.  If this experiment is run using a 1536 well plate, meaning 1536 samples can be tested at a time, this requires nearly 1650 plates. The only way to accomplish handling this many well plates for an experiment is high throughput screening (HTS), which requires a high degree of robotic automation.RequirementsThe goal of this project is to add a SCARA robot to the existing HTS system with the following NCATS’ existing equipment: FLIPR Penta, Bruker Rapiflex MALDI, Analytikjena CyBio MALDI-TOF-MS automated sample preparation liquid handlerBridge Programs will be written for the following equipment: Precise Robotics SCARA RobotFLIPR Penta, Bruker Rapiflex MALDI, Analytikjena CyBio MALDI-TOF-MS automated sample preparation liquid handler, Echo 6xx Acoustic DispenserThe following equipment will be added to Cell 1; 2 Labcyte Echo acoustic dispensers,ATS-100. The following equipment will be removed from the system; Library 2, Pintool 1, Incell. The following instrument will be reconfigured; Pintool 2.  Mechanical SCARA Robot, Use existing Precise P400 robot from Labcyte system, Send robot to distributor – replace labcyte gripper with standard gripper.  Add 2.0m rail, Frame/structure – Screening System, Remove Library 2/Aspect Pintool, Use riggers – move to storage, Reprogram director/robot program for change of library numbers.  Modify Guarding-Add guarding with doors around library 2 location, Echos-  Add loaders (2) similar to FRD loader, Use existing Echo carts, Misc-Use existing ATS100 carts, Add-Delidders (3 additional) and Hand-off nests to SCARA Cell.  Pintool, Modify pintool for Aspect designed nests.  The GNF nests connect to the system using a 25-pin connector.  All sensors and air valves are inside the nest (the vacuum valve is external).  The Aspect nests have all sensor amplifiers and valves in the air purged cabinet.  Purchase new sensor amplifiers and valves and mount them either in or near the Aspect nests.  Cabinet wiring will need to be done. Try not to have to modify the software in the pintool if at all possible.  Replace both nests, we will have to raise the control plate nest as it has to sit higher than the compound plate nest. NCATS will send vendor one or both nests from the Dart pintool for modification.  Structure – SCARA System, Design and build a frame for the Precise robot.  delidding stations (as required) and 4 room temperature hotels.   All of the peripherals are free standing.  Software; Director Software, Configure system as 4-cell system, Upgrade external interface with RabbitMQ or ActiveX.  Robot Bridge; Modifications/testing after firmware upgrade Beckhoff integration into robot bridge, Barcode reader integration.  Echo Bridge, Write new bridge, FLIPR Penta Bridge, Write new bridge.  Bruker Rapiflex MALDI Bridge, Write new bridge, Analytikjena CyBio MALDI-TOF-MS Bridge, Write new bridge, Hardware, Design Echo loader, Integration & testing.  Period of Performance10-14 Weeks ARO and two years technical support and software upgrades..Sole Source Justification:Over the past 10 years, NCATS has made a substantial investment in HTS systems, spending over $20M in automated equipment to run experiments. The two most active systems at the center are the Kalypsys Primary Screening system that was put into service in 2005 and the Tox21 Robotic Screening system that was put into service in 2011. As these systems increase in age, it becomes increasingly imperative that they can be maintained and supported.  Also, it is important that we incorporate state of the art instrumentation to further increase the capabilities of the platform.  This acquisition is to integrate several pieces of state-of-the-art instrumentation onto our existing screening platform to enhance the overall capability of the system and to introduce new detection types and workflows to perform novel screens.  There are no other vendors that can provide the specific server and software configuration needed to upgrade these screening systems.  We are using the proprietary scheduling software made by FujiFilm Wako Automation and they have specific hardware and software configuration settings to ensure continuous and smooth operation.CLOSING STATEMENTThis synopsis is not a request for competitive proposals.  However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this notice. The respondents must submit clear and convincing evidence that their product is equivalent or superior to the product specified in this notice. The response shall include: the unit price, list price, shipping and handling costs, delivery days after contract award, delivery terms, prompt payment discount terms, F.O.B. Point (Destination or Origin), product or catalog number(s); product description; and any other information or factors that may be considered to determine the method of acquisition. The response must also indicate the country of manufacturer.A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.  The information received will normally be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to proceed on a non-competitive basis or to conduct a competitive procurement.  All responses must be received by ­­­­14 August 2020 at 5PM Eastern Time and must reference number HHS-NIH-NIDA-SSSA-75N95020Q00186. Responses must be submitted electronically to Rieka Plugge, rieka.plugge@nih.gov, and must reference the solicitation number HHS-NIH-NIDA-SSSA-75N95020Q00186, on your electronic request.  FAX requests are not accepted.“All responsible sources may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency.”