SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- Absolute Quantification of Metabolic Phenotyping for Discovery of Predictive Blood Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease and Brain Markers of Resilience to Alzheimer's pathology
- Notice Date
- 7/9/2014
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 621511
— Medical Laboratories
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Station Support/Simplified Acquisitions, 31 Center Drive, Room 1B59, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892
- ZIP Code
- 20892
- Solicitation Number
- HHS-NIH-NIDA(SSSA)-SBSS-14-422
- Archive Date
- 8/5/2014
- Point of Contact
- Hunter A. Tjugum, Phone: 301 435 8780, ,
- E-Mail Address
-
hunter.tjugum@nih.gov, NIDASSSAPurchaseRequ@mail.nih.gov
(hunter.tjugum@nih.gov, NIDASSSAPurchaseRequ@mail.nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- INTRODUCTION This is a Small Business Sources Sought (SBSS) notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice. This notice is issued to help determine the availability and type of qualified Small Business companies technically capable of meeting this potential government requirement and to determine the method of acquisition. It is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses will not be considered as proposals or quotes. No award will be made as a result of this notice. The Government will NOT be responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice. The notice is strictly for research and information purposes only. The information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method including small business socio-economic set-aside possibilities and to determine the availability of qualified Small Business companies technically capable of meeting the Government's potential requirement. All Small Business companies with the capability and availability to perform the requirement under the applicable NAICS code are invited to submit a response to this notice. NORTH AMERICAN CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS) CODE The NAICS code applicable to this requirement is 621511 Medical Laboratories with associated small business size standard $13.5 million. Background The National Institute on Aging (NIA), one of the 27 Institutes and Centers of NIH, leads a broad scientific effort to understand the nature of aging and to extend the healthy, active years of life. The Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience (LBN) is driven by the purpose to enhance the understanding of age associated physical and biological changes in health and disease. The mission of the LBN is: (1) to conduct basic and clinical research on individual differences in brain structure, function and cognitive abilities; (2) to investigate the influence of age on these variables, using both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs; and (3) to identify predictors of cognitive decline and Alzheimer's Disease, including both risk and protective factors for cognitive and brain aging. In this field, there is a pressing need to identify predictive blood-based biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and to facilitate the emerging paradigm shift in Alzheimer's research calling for disease-modifying treatments to be initiated in older individuals who are in preclinical stages of disease prior to the onset of overt cognitive decline. Using mass spectrometry-based proteomic analyses in combination with multi-modal neuroimaging, studies have revealed a robust peripheral signal from the plasma proteome that appears to be associated with AD pathology. Purpose and Objectives This Small Business Sources Sought notice seeks to determine eligible sources with the capability to provide the required services stated in this announcement. This potential requirement focuses on blood-based biomarkers of AD that accurately reflect well-established endophenotypes of AD pathology such as brain atrophy, and "in vivo" fibrillar Ap deposition. The potential requirement supports studies that aim to utilize a targeted quantitative metabolomics approach, which will identify: a) small metabolites in serum that may be useful as predictive blood biomarkers of incident AD and b) metabolite markers in brain associated with resilience to AD pathology. Small metabolites are the end result of all regulatory complexity present in the cell, tissue, or organism, including transcriptional regulation, translational regulation, and post-translational modification, and metabolic changes are thus the most proximal reporters of alterations in the body in response to a disease process. Project Requirements The essential government feature that this potential requirement needs to achieve is utilizing a method called quantitative targeted metabolomics for measuring the absolute concentrations of 180 metabolites in serum and post-mortem brain samples to discover predictive blood biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and markers of resilience to AD pathology. This method is a novel approach distinct from traditional and most widely used metabolomics methodology where only relative quantification of metabolites can be determined between different samples. Relative quantification provides limited information as it only allows comparative differences (i.e. lower or higher) between samples to be determined. In order to meet the goal of the proposed study i.e. the discovery of metabolites that can predict the onset of AD before clinical symptoms, accurate and absolute quantification of metabolites is a critical requirement. This is also the ultimate goal of the proposed biomarker study i.e. the development of a blood-test for the prediction of AD that could one day be used in clinical practice settings. This can only be accomplished by the accurate estimation of absolute metabolite concentrations in human serum, CSF and brain tissue samples from AD study. Metablolite classes needing to be analyzed will include: amino acids, biogenic amines, acylcarnitines, phosphatidylcholines, sphingomyleins, and hexoses. Capability statements sought Interested parties are expected to review this notice to familiarize itself with the requirements of this project. Failure to do so will be at your firm's own risk. Respondents must provide clear and convincing evidence of their capability to deliver kit-based assay techniques for measuring the concentrations of large numbers of metabolites by absolute quanitification according to the specifications contained in this announcement. Delivery will include results of data analysis and related documentation in electronic format. Respondents must provide clear and convincing documentation of their capability in providing analytical quality control and any other requirements and services specified in this notice. Respondents must provide a general overview of the respondents' opinions about the difficulty and /or feasibility of the potential requirement, and any information regarding innovative ideas or concepts. The Respondent must also provide information in sufficient details of the respondents' (a) staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training; (b) current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work; (c) prior completed projects of similar nature; (d) corporate experience and management capability; and (e) examples of prior completed Government contracts, references, and other related information. The respondent must also provide their DUNS number, organization name, address, point of contact, and size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HubZone, etc.) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code and any other information that may be helpful in developing or finalizing the acquisition requirements. All responses to this small business sources sought notice must reference solicitation number HHS-NIH-NIDA(SSSA)-SBSS-14-422 and be submitted electronically (via email) to Hunter Tjugum, Contract Specialist at hunter.tjugum@nih.gov and NIDASSSAPurchaseRequ@mail.nih.gov on or before the closing date specified in this announcement. Facsimile responses will be accepted at 301-480-1358. The response must not exceed 15 pages in total length in a Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format using 11-point or 12-point font, 8-1/2" x 11" paper size, with 1" top, bottom, left and right margins, and with single or double spacing. CONCLUDING STATEMENTS Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).
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