SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- Molecular Epidemiology Assay Support
- Notice Date
- 4/27/2011
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Office of Acquisitions, 6120 Executive Blvd., EPS Suite 600, Rockville, Maryland, 20852
- ZIP Code
- 20852
- Solicitation Number
- HHS-NIH-NCI-SBSS-ETSB-11012-76
- Archive Date
- 5/27/2011
- Point of Contact
- Catherine Muir, Phone: (301) 435-3779, Lisa Coleman, Phone: (301) 496-8605
- E-Mail Address
-
muirca@mail.nih.gov, licoleman@mail.nih.gov
(muirca@mail.nih.gov, licoleman@mail.nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Synopsis: This is a Small Business Sources Sought 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 requirement is assigned a code of 541990 in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), and the size standard for such requirements is $7 million. The National Institute of Cancer (NCI), the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG), is anticipating re-competing a contract for support collection efforts for biospecimens from field and clinical settings, process biospecimens to ensure their suitability for downstream testing, and assist with the transport of specimens to testing laboratories or to a long-term storage facility, as needed. This support services contract is essential to DECG to maintain its program that includes: • Cancer epidemiology studies • Molecular epidemiology method studies The Contract has arranged for the transfer of materials and supplies to domestic and international collection sites (e.g., China, Costa Rica, Mongolia), production of quality control samples for insertion into analytical batches and aliquotting samples. During the current contract period (2005-2011) the contractor prepared over 53,000 aliquots in support of thirty-six (36) studies. The contract will establish a mechanism to provide all the services required to support up to thirty-six (36) program studies that are time sensitive and/or require coordination across multiple sites and institutions. Some of the major activities of the contract include: * Advise and make recommendations regarding innovative, cutting edge approaches to specimen collection, processing, storage and dissemination. Areas covered should include equipment, materials and supplies, procedures and approaches to performing the work supported in this contract that will result in expediting specimen handling, reducing labor costs for as well as overall costs for maintaining equipment and running the facilities. * Prepare reports on queues for specimen processing. * Utilize the Biological Specimen Inventory (BSI) System (www.bsi-ii.com) used by DCEG biospecimen repositories to track and control the acquisition, storage, requisition, and distribution of biospecimens. * Become familiar with and utilize all relevant BSI-generated inventory and tracking reports, as well as other features of the BSI. * Develop quality control/assurance procedures for monitoring the accuracy of data (e.g., specimen identification and characterization) entered into the BSI and any other computerized or manual record-keeping system that relates to biospecimens received by the repository (e.g., reconciling inventory sheets accompanying specimens with BSI entries). * Provide, prepare and transport appropriate supplies, equipment and procedures for collecting, processing, and aliquotting biospecimens to designated field centers and transport and provide supplies for the shipment of processed specimens as needed (e.g., dry ice or liquid nitrogen dry shippers) back to the Contractor or other designated facility. * Provide transportation of biospecimens to the repository from collection centers outside of the local metropolitan area according to standards required by the Air Transport Association (IATA) and any other applicable transportation requirements. * Monitor both domestic and international shipments of biospecimens and environmental samples to track their progress in transit. Such monitoring activities shall be applicable to shipments to and from the repository, as well as from collection centers to testing laboratories. * Initiate procedures for tracing shipments of biospecimens and environmental samples not received within eight (8) hours of the scheduled delivery time. This pertains to specimens shipped from the repository and specimens expected to be received at the repository. * Maintain a biospecimen processing laboratory and repository according to industry best practices capable of processing and storing a wide range of biospecimens, including but not limited to sera, plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells, urine, feces, saliva/bucca l cells, and tumor tissue. Precautions shall be taken to ensure that biological materials remain free of bacterial or other contamination during processing and other manipulations of the specimens. * Maintain a repository for the storage of biospecimens and environmental samples (e.g., air, water and soil samples) managed under this effort. Biospecimens stored should be only those that are either being prepared to be distributed to laboratories for testing or from which laboratories they have been recently returned. The total number of specimens is expected to be under 200,000, two-thirds of which will be stored in -80 ⁰C mechanical freezers and one-third will be stored in liquid nitrogen vapor (-150 ⁰C). Some +4 ⁰C and ambient storage may be needed. * Maintain a safety and health program for good laboratory practices and for the handling of human biological and environmental materials. * Perform aliquotting of biospecimens or other specialized types of processing. * Advise and provide recommendations regarding innovative, cutting edge methods of: - molecular analyses including genetic analyses, hormone measurements, assays for particular analytes, and metabolomic analyses and - assays pertaining to proteomics, metabolomics, global profiling of mRNA and micro- RNA, epigenetics (methylation - both global and gene-specific, histone acetylation, etc.), adductomics, new gene mutation assays, and multiplex cytokine assays. To be deemed capable of providing the current need for the contract the offeror must submit a tailored, written capability statement. Organizations that submit capability statements in response to this notice will be evaluated against the following technical areas of experience and expertise: 1. Personnel/Experience: a) Organizational experience with laboratory research and with support of multiple concurrent epidemiologic research studies of comparable in size and complexity and involving a range of study designs, some of which may have involved international components, and subcontracts. b) Ability of the Offeror to respond quickly to changes in priorities and to supply support to urgent new efforts as directed by the Project Officer. c) The Offeror must demonstrate how it will accomplish the task of attendance at face-to-face discussions, on a nearly daily basis, between the NCI Project Officers and the Project Director or project managers of individual studies in order to monitor and review progress on project activities. d) The Offeror shall provide the name of the principal investigator, his/her professional qualifications and specific experience as a key investigator in support of multiple concurrent epidemiologic research studies of comparable in size and complexity and involving a range of study designs, some of which may have involved international components, and subcontracts. e) The Offeror shall demonstrate that the proposed staff has previous successful experience in carrying out the requirements of the services stated herein. 2. Facilities: The offeror shall have the necessary dedicated office space and accommodations to fulfill the requirements. 3. Technical: a) The Offeror shall demonstrate that it has access to information regarding state-of-the-art methods for molecular epidemiological research and specimen handling and storage activities. b) The Offeror shall demonstrate that it has strong quality control/assurance programs that include the use of written, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to cover all laboratory and repository activities according to industry best practices, as appropriate. c) The Offeror shall demonstrate that it has the expertise to advise DCEG of effective strategies for the collection of specimens from field and clinical sites. d) The Offeror shall demonstrate that they have a comprehensive training program to ensure that technical staff are fully trained on repository operations, laboratory and repository activities. If any responsible source believes it can perform the requirements they may submit their tailored capability statements via email (PDF format; 20 Page Limit, these pages exclude resumes and cite this notice number: HHS-NIH-NCI-SBSS-ETSB-11012-76) for consideration by NCI to Kate Muir, Contract Specialist, at the e-mail address provided by the response date. No collect calls or facsimile transmissions will be accepted. Respondents must include 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. 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(s). 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. Contracting Office Address: 6120 Executive Blvd. EPS, Suite 600 Rockville, MD 20852 Primary Point of Contact: Kate Muir, Contract Specialist muirca@mail.nih.gov Phone: (301) 435-3779 Secondary Point of Contact: Lisa Coleman, Contracting Officer licoleman@mail.nih.gov Phone: (301) 496-8605
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