The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) intends to award a sole source contract to Illumina, Inc. located in San Diego, CA for a service contract for Catalog # SV-101-1003 BeadStation, #SV-122-1003 Tecan Roma, and #SV-111-1003 Autoloader. The requirement is for full coverage on all service parts and labor, including comprehensive email and telephone support (instrument, applications, and bioinformatics); three business day average on-site response time, critical and non-critical updates, applications support, access to on-line training modules, and one preventative maintenance visit per year. The Tecan Roma Laboratory Robot is specifically designed to process the Custom iSelect Illumina Beadchips that are used on a daily basis in the laboratory for the analysis of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) DNA markers. The BeadStation is specifically designed to scan and collect data from the Custom iSelect Illumina Beadchips and Sentrix Array Matrices that are used on a daily basis in the laboratory. The Autoloader is used to feed the Illumina Beadchips into the Illumina BeadStation and is a necessary piece of equipment that is required for the scanning of Beadchips and Sentrix Array Matrices. The Tecan Roma Laboratory Robot is only programmed to function for the purpose of analyzing single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) DNA markers using proprietary Illumina Beadchips.  Illumina, Inc. is the only source that supplies the services required for the maintenance of this equipment.

Anticipated Date of Award:   05/27/2011