9.4 Tesla MRI Scanner for Rat Neuroimaging Studies
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; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued.
The solicitation number is HHS-NIH-NIDA(AG)-RFQ-19-75N95019Q00188 and the solicitation is issued as a request for quotation (RFQ).
This acquisition is for a commercial item or service and is conducted under the authority of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13-Simplified Acquisition Procedures; FAR Subpart 13.5- Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items; and FAR Part 12-Acquisition of Commercial Items, and is expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold.
The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2019-03, dated July 2019.
The associated NAICS code is 334516 and the small business size standard is 1,000 employees. This requirement is solicited as a brand-name or equal competitive acquisition.
Background:
The National Institute on Aging (NIA), one of the 27 Institutes and Centers of NIH, leads the federal government in conducting and supporting research on aging and the health and well-being of older people. The Institute seeks to understand the nature of aging and the aging process, and diseases and conditions associated with growing older, in order to extend the healthy, active years of life. Its mission is to support and conduct genetic, biological, clinical, behavioral, social, and economic research on aging, foster the development of research and clinician scientists in aging, provide research resources, and disseminate information about aging and advances in research to the public, health care professionals, and the scientific community among a variety of audiences
Advances in functional neuroimaging have provided critically valuable tools for exploring substrates of cognitive and brain reserve in aging. An important theme in this work is that cognitive aging - and the mechanisms that protect against or compensate for decline - arise from neural network level dynamics, involving the coordinated interaction between distributed brain systems. Findings from preclinical animal models are consistent with this perspective, highlighting the value of noninvasive neuroimaging as a translational bridge in this area of research. We propose to implement state-of-the-art functional neuroimaging as a key component of the longitudinal data that will be collected and made available to the scientific community for the study of cognitive and brain reserve in the new STARRRS initiative.
Purpose and Objectives:
The NIA proposes to purchase a Bruker Biospec 94/20 MRI scanner or equivalent to support the newly-established "Rat resource for the longitudinal study of neurocognitive reserve in aging", also known as the STARRRS project. This instrument will allow NIA to perform longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopic measurements in the brains of Long-Evans rats and to correlate these measurements with behavioral and physiological data for the study of cognition and brain aging, building a database for joint intramural-extramural research projects.
The requested MRI system is targeted to enable the implementation of cutting-edge neuroimaging in the rat. This is a challenging task, given the small size of the rat brain and the component regions comprising the neural networks of interest. Optimizing signal-to-noise ratio is critical to effectively implement several of the neuroimaging modalities that have proved most informative in research on cognitive reserve (e.g., resting state functional connectivity). Studies of this sort have a narrow dynamic range of measurement of only a few percent, so operation at a high static magnetic field strength, coupled with the improved sensitivity provided by a cryocooled probe, is an important advantage. Related studies of cerebral blood flow (CBF) will also benefit greatly from this advanced instrumentation. CBF can be measured in a number of ways, all involving subtraction between images, one with, and one without, magnetic labeling. Measurement dynamic range is again relatively small, and the proposed infrastructure will yield maximal spatial resolution and sensitivity for analyzing region specific data and the identification of potential neural network predictors of successful cognitive aging and longitudinal decline.
Product Description:
Bruker Biospec 94/20 MRI scanner or equivalent.
Salient characteristics of the requested MRI scanner are as follows:
a) Must include 9.4 Tesla actively shielded magnet - needed for safe siting in available space and adequate sensitivity for high-resolution rat neuroimaging.
b) Must include whole body gradient/shim coil with clear bore diameter of at least 120 mm and 660 mT/m minimum gradient strength at a minimum slew rate of 4570 T/m/s - needed to fit the largest Long-Evans rats while supporting modern diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) experiments.
c) Must include B0 magnetic field shim power supply, including second order shim channels - needed to
compensate for B0 field inhomogeneity across subject's brain, especially in localized NMR spectroscopy
experiments.
d) Must include a minimum of 2 radio frequency transmit channels with at least 1 kW peak power per channel - needed to homogenize the radio-frequency (RF) transmit field to ensure uniform nuclear spin excitation across the brain.
e) Must include a minimum of 8 receive channels - needed to support parallel imaging techniques, which are used in modern MRI protocols to accelerate data acquisition and thereby minimize total scan time.
f) Must include a proton (1H) transmit coil with a clear bore of at least 86 mm to accommodate the largest Long-Evans rats and the ability to operate in either transmit-only (actively decoupled) or transmit-receive mode for accurate shimming and use with dedicated, high SNR head coils, respectively.
g) Must include a proton (1H) rat brain surface array with at least 4 receive channels - needed for research applications demanding high sensitivity with parallel imaging.
h) Must include a proton (1H) surface coil with 20 mm inner diameter to allow rat brain imaging with fMRI protocols developed at the NIDA-IRP.
i) Must provide support for multinuclear (MN) transmit-receive experiments, including phosphorus-31 (31P) studies - needed to perform bioenergetic studies on the rat brain.
j) Must support neuroimaging experiments, including susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI), arterial spin labeling (ASL), localized proton NMR spectroscopy (MRS) and functional imaging (fMRI) - needed to collect data on brain aging and age-related pathology using both standard and advanced neuroimaging paradigms.
Anticipated Delivery:
Anticipated delivery will be 16 months after receipt of order with a 12 month warranty following installation.
Other Important Considerations:
The following FAR provisions shall apply to this solicitation: 52.211-6 -- Brand Name or Equal, 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors--Commercial Items, 52.212-2, Evaluation--Commercial Items, 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions Commercial Items, 52.212- 5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders Commercial Items. The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. Evaluation factors that will be used to evaluate the offer, price and other factors considered, include ability to meet the technical requirements stated in this RFQ and on basis of best value to the government. Technical and past performance, when combined, are significantly more important than cost or price. Offerors must include a completed copy of the provision at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications Commercial Items, with their offer.
There are no additional contract requirement(s) or terms and conditions applicable to this acquisition. The Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS) are not applicable to this requirement. Responses to this solicitation must include sufficient information to establish the interested parties' bona-fide capabilities of providing the product or service. The price quote shall include: 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 in the award decision. Such factors may include: past performance; special features required for effective program performance; trade-in considerations; probable life of the item selected as compared with that of a comparable item; warranty considerations; maintenance availability; and environmental and energy efficiency considerations.
Respondents proposing on an equal product of the brand-name product specified in this announcement must provide, as part of their response: (a) product, catalog, model, and/or part number(s); (b) product description; (c) all relevant information and documentation that the item(s) offered meets the salient physical, functional, or performance characteristics as specified in the purchase description; quantity; estimated price or cost; shipping, handling, and/or installation charges; and delivery date after receipt of order.
In addition, the Dun & Bradstreet Number (DUNS), the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and the certification of business size must be included in the response. All offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) www.sam.gov."
All responses must be received by August 12, 2019 at 4:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) and must reference solicitation number HHS-NIH-NIDA(AG)-RFQ-19-75N95019Q00188. Responses may be submitted electronically to Eric McKay, eric.mckay@nih.gov. Fax responses will not be accepted.
Eric McKay, Contract Specialist, Phone 3014802406, Email eric.mckay@nih.gov
