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FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JULY 10, 2011 FBO #3515
MODIFICATION

66 -- Direct Electron Detection Camera

Notice Date

7/8/2011
 

Notice Type

Modification/Amendment
 

NAICS

334516 — Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing
 

Contracting Office

Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Rockledge Dr. Bethesda, MD, Office of Acquisitions, 6701 Rockledge Dr RKL2/6100 MSC 7902, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892-7902
 

ZIP Code

20892-7902
 

Solicitation Number

NHLBI-CSB-(AR)-2011-242-CRS
 

Archive Date

8/2/2011
 

Point of Contact

Caitlin Savina,
 

E-Mail Address

savinacr@nhlbi.nih.gov
(savinacr@nhlbi.nih.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

Sources Sought Notice No.: NHLBI-CSB-(AR)-2011-242-CRS Title: Direct Electron Detection Camera This Sources Sought Notice (SS) is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The purpose of this SS is to identify qualified small business concerns [including Small Disadvantaged Businesses (SDB), Woman-owned Small Businesses (WOSB), Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Small Businesses, Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (VOSB) and Service-Disabled Veteran-owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB] that are interested in and capable of providing the Direct Election Detection Camera. The NHLBI does not intend to award a contract on the basis of responses nor otherwise pay for the preparation of any information submitted. As a result of this Sources Sought notice, the NHLBI may issue a Request for Quote (RFQ). THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. However, should such a requirement materialize, no basis for claims against NHLBI shall arise as a result of a response to this Sources Sought notice or the NHLBI's use of such information as either part of our evaluation process or in developing specifications for any subsequent requirement. The NHLBI is seeking capability statements from all eligible small business concerns [particularly Small Disadvantaged Businesses (SDB), Woman-owned Small Businesses (WOSB), Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Small Businesses, Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (VOSB) and Service-Disabled Veteran-owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB)] under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 334516 with a size standard of 500 employees. Based on the responses received from this SOURCES SOUGHT announcement, the proposed acquisition may be solicited as a Total Small Business Set-Aside. All eligible small business concerns responding to this Sources Sought Announcement must have the capabilities to provide the below services upon receipt of order. Interested parties are expected to review this notice to familiarize yourself with the requirements of this project; failure to do so will be at your firm's own risk. Background Since its inception, the Laboratory of Structural Biology Research (LSBR) has specialized in detailed structural analysis of macromolecules, macromolecular complexes, and subcellular structures by computer-enhanced electron microscopy. The goal of these studies is to elucidate structure-function relationships at the molecular level with particular emphasis on (but not restricted to) systems that bear directly on the mission of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS). This program was initiated in 1978 with the appointment of a tenure-track investigator, and progressed to become a Section in 1984- and further to Laboratory status in 1990. A typical research project involves recording electron micrographs of the highest possible quality, subjecting them to digital image analysis to elicit the maximum amount of structural information, and interpretation, taking into account all pertinent complementary data. In this context, the LSBR has performed ground-breaking studies on cytoskeletal filaments, virus particles and antigens, and complex enzymes among other important biomedical specimens. The results achieved depend both on the quality of the primary data (electron microscope images) and the scope of computer analysis. Cryo-electron microscopy - the technique of visualizing organic specimens suspended in vitreous ice - was introduced in the 1980s and has revolutionized what is achievable. The LSBR has been to the fore in these advances and in 1997 accomplished the landmark result of extending the resolution on isolated complexes below 1 nanometer for the first time. In order to maintain the LSBR program at the cutting-edge of this research field, it is necessary to periodically upgrade the hardware used in the lab. Purpose Specifically, a major technical advance has been made with the recent introduction of large-format digital camera of much greater sensitivity and electron-collecting efficiency than was achieved in the previous generation of these instruments. Thus, the LSBR is in need of a 4k x 4k direct electron detection camera for capturing electron micrographs. Recent developments in electron microscope cameras have made direct electron detection a reality. With the elimination of the scintillator, the electron-to-light conversion layer necessary in typical CCD cameras, direct detection cameras promise unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. With the advent of this new technology, the prospect of recording low-dose, high-resolution electron micrographs digitally rather than on traditional film are becoming a reality. The lab will also benefit from a reduced need for silver-based photochemistry and a decreased dependence on EM film, which has become pricier and harder to obtain in recent years. Since the images recorded on such a device will be in a digital format, the time-consuming step of digitalizing (scanning) electron micrographs, as is currently done with traditional film, will be eliminated. Specifications of the Direct Electron Detection Camera : 1. Must be compatible with a JEOL JEM 2200FS transmission electron microscope and capable of operating at electron energies up to 200keV. 2. Must be a direct electron detection camera with a back-thinned CMOS sensor of ~ 4k x 4k pixel format and allow direct acquisition of digital data under low dose (0.5 - 20 e-/Å2 at the specimen) conditions. 3. The camera must be compatible with JEOL JEM 2200FS low dose data acquisition software with automatic beam blanking for the acquisition of both high-resolution cryo-EM images and tomographic tilt series of frozen, hydrated biological specimens using phase plates and zero-loss energy filtering. 4. Continuous full-frame read-out of 400 frames per second (fps) or greater in order to operate in electron counting mode, in which an image is constructed from the information in the images of individual incident electron events. 5. Must include all electronic and computational hardware and software necessary for inline event processing for single electron discrimination and ~ 8k x 8k sub-pixel centroiding at a rate of 400 fps * 4k x 4k pixels/sec (6.4 Gpixels/sec) or greater. 6. Camera performance [200 kV, Integrating Mode, where Nyquist is the outermost (highest resolution) spatial frequency sampled in the Fourier transform of the image]: Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) at 0.5 Nyquist ≥ 0.14, Detective Quantum Efficiency (DQE) at 0.5 Nyquist ≥ 0.22 7. Sensor must be of a radiation-hardened design such that the camera performance criteria of MTF ≥ 0.14 and DQE ≥ 0.22 (measured at 0.5 Nyquist for 200kV electrons) is maintained for a total cumulative sensor dose of at least 5 billion electrons/pixel. 8. Software shall be provided for camera control, image acquisition and image processing (e.g. DigitalMicrograph). The provided software should allow users to write programs, such as scripts, for the customization of camera control, image acquisition and image processing to accommodate user-specific applications. 9. The camera and associated software must be compatible with third party acquisition software such as SerialEM (D.N. Mastronarde, 2005. J. Struct. Biol. 152:36-51) and all modes of camera operation must be accessible to third party software. 10. Must be Peltier cooled with a sensor temperature of -20°C or lower to reduce dark current. 11. Must have flexible sub-area readout, and support x2, x3, x4, x6 and x8 binning. 12. Must be on-axis, bottom mounted, and retractable and must accommodate future mounting of a Gatan US1000 CCD below the direct detector housing. 13. Must automatically retract whenever the microscope camera chamber is about to be vented. 14. The system shall include a secondary, 11 Mpixel or larger, CCD camera capable of ≥14 frames per second for routine work such as searching and focusing. 15. Air, water, and electronic interface hardware for connecting the pneumatic insertion and extraction of the detector, water-cooling of electronics, and electronic and optical interfacing must be standard and included in the price of the camera. 16. Installation and on-site training of at least 3 days shall be provided by service engineers specifically qualified in the installation and use of this camera. 17. Vendor must disconnect and remove a Gatan Model 795 MSC CCD camera as trade in for ≥$10,000 credit. 18. Warranty. The contractor warrants the instrument and all associated hardware, software, accessories and components for a period of at least two years. During this period, any and all upgrades to these items will be provided and installed free of charge. Interested parties should submit a tailored capability statement for this requirement, not to exceed 20 single-sided pages (including all attachments, resumes, charts, etc.) presented in single-space and using a 12-point font size minimum, that clearly details the ability to perform the aspects of the notice described above. All proprietary information should be marked as such. Statements should also include an indication of current certified small business status; this indication should be clearly marked on the first page of your capability statement (preferably placed under the eligible small business concern's name and address). Responses will be reviewed only by NIH personnel and will be held in a confidential manner. All capability Statements sent in response to this SOURCES SOUGHT notice must be submitted electronically (via email) to Caitlin Savina, Contract Specialist, at caitlin.savina@nih.gov in either MS Word or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), by July 18th, 2011, 9:00 AM, EST. All responses must be received by the specified due date and time in order to be considered.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/NIH/NHLBI/NHLBI-CSB-(AR)-2011-242-CRS/listing.html)
 

Place of Performance

Address: NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, United States

Zip Code: 20892
 

Record

SN02493694-W 20110710/110708235110-3933c49b90ab15efad44a2a41733a0e6 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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