SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- NEI Computational Medicine Resource: Infrastructure Development and Activity Support
- Notice Date
- 5/18/2011
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Office of Administration, 6011 Executive Blvd, 5th Floor, Rockville, Maryland, 20852-3804, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20852-3804
- Solicitation Number
- HHS-NIH-OD-OLAO-RDSS-11-005
- Point of Contact
- Joycelyn E Bacchus, Phone: 301-435-3901
- E-Mail Address
-
bacchusj@od.nih.gov
(bacchusj@od.nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a Research and Development (R & D) Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of all qualified sources to perform a potential R & D requirement. Statement of Work Background: We are in an era in which the comprehensive study of the DNA, RNA and proteins involved in physiological and pathophysiological states has become feasible and increasingly routine. These exciting molecular genetic approaches permit the study of biological information from a global-perspective. Technical advances and declining costs of high-throughput genotyping and genomic sequencing afford unparalleled opportunities to conduct increasingly complex analyses of genetic associations with phenotypic and disease characteristics. Genomic science is beginning to dissect the complex etiologies of eye diseases, and is poised to enter the realm of clinical ophthalmology. In fact, the body of work on the genetics of age-related macular degeneration was recognized by Science as one of the top ten scientific breakthroughs of 2006. Recent successes bode well for progress on advancing our understanding of genetic and environmental factors that confer the susceptibility to eye diseases may be rapid; however, the genetic architectures of these diseases are complex and challenges abound. Additional complexities will abound when such data are integrated with those from other domains, e.g., imaging, pharmacologic, behavioral, epidemiologic and clinical information. Generation of terabytes of data across these multiple domains will push the frontiers of the molecular genetics of the eye disease toward information science and systems biology; however, ongoing efforts are independent and no strategy or blueprint has been developed to integrate all of these data in a way that will permit enable new conceptual advances through integrative, computational approaches. Most important is a heuristic by which these multiple domains of data can be integrated to develop new approaches to the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of eye diseases. A critically important and innovative approach to permit full interrogation of diverse data sets is to establish a cyber/bioinformatics infrastructure that fully incorporates all data - ranging from molecular and cellular studies in model systems through genetic, genomic, clinical and translational studies in humans - and that permits complex modeling and analysis. This cyber infrastructure will represent the coordinated aggregate of diverse data sets, analytic software tools, hardware and other technologies, as well as human expertise, required to support current and future research endeavors for the vision research community. A cyber infrastructure for eye disease will integrate relevant and often disparate genetic, proteomic, imaging, clinical, epidemiologic resources to provide a useful, usable, and enabling framework for gene identification, molecular target discovery, drug screening and drug discovery that will be characterized by broad access and "end-to-end" coordination. Objectives: This potential requirement requires the creation of a data sharing cyber infrastructure to benefit the eye disease research community. While data to support vision research has much in common with the data sharing found in other research communities, vision research does have unique data types and data sharing requirements, as well as unique workflows. Given that the advantages of exiting reusable data sharing infrastructure has not generally been leveraged by the vision research community, there needs to be an effort to take current best practice and apply it to create a persistent national scales data focused platform for facilitating vision research. There is a need to identify gaps in the current data sharing infrastructure that are important and to fill those gaps. Lastly, there is a need to demonstrate to the eye disease research community as a whole the utility of these types of shared cyber infrastructure via large-scale demonstration pilots. Within the vision research community there is recognition and interests in the value that cyber/bioinformatics infrastructure can bring to the research community as a whole. Our approach will allow broad and open access to the scientific community, thereby providing researchers from across multiple disciplines (e.g., molecular and cellular neuroscience, systems biology, genomics, MRI physics, biomedical engineering, pharmacology and drug discovery) with the unparalleled opportunity to apply their cutting edge technologies to basic, clinical and translational research in eye disease. There are a range of NEI-funded multi-institutional and collaborative research activities that could utilize a data sharing infrastructure, but have yet to benefit from data-sharing infrastructure, either due to lack of expertise, experience and in some cases, lack of support for requirements which can build on existing infrastructure, yet are unique to eye research. Within the scope of this potential requirement, all of these barriers are to be addressed. The National Institutes of Health, National Eye Institute (NEI) would like to identify sources with the capability to develop and maintain data-sharing cyber infrastructure that supports a wide range of multi-institutional and collaborative research activities unique to eye research. Technical Requirements: Use state-of-the-art methodologies and protocols to achieve all of the following requirements. Furnish all necessary labor, services, equipment, material and supplies (except as otherwise specified herein) to perform the requirements set forth below: 1) To create a cyber infrastructure that is optimized for the workflows associated with eye disease research. - Develop a multidimensional cyber infrastructure that provides analytic tools and web accessible services for data integration and management, modeling, simulation, visualization and workflow to streamline and accelerate the investigation of the visual functions and eye diseases conducted by the scientific community at multiple levels, e.g., genomic, imaging, clinical. 2) Develop data sharing testbeds and populate them with relevant sharable data sets. - Create tools and graphical user interfaces for the integration of multiple data-sources, in order to interconnect multiple genetics, genomics, imaging, epidemiologic and other databases. - Cyberplatform that includes interactive visualization tools to model genomic and other analyses, including epigenetics, gene - environment, and protein - protein interactions. - Assure the security, privacy and confidentiality of eye disease data sets from multiple modalities through all cyber infrastructure components. 3) Demonstrate the utility of data sharing infrastructure for the vision research community. - Create an operational testbed for the purpose of demonstrating that the infrastructure to be developed is capable of sharing the array of data relevant to vision research, and that data sharing by this mechanism is of tangible value. The testbeds will be used to create and evaluate at least three data sharing usecase that will include the clinics and research institutions conducting clinical research and cohort studies. Required Travel: The contractor shall travel to the Bethesda area for meetings on an annual basis to present and discuss findings and the progress of the tasks performed under the contract. Offerors should estimate for up to two investigators (the PI and one other) traveling to Bethesda, Maryland for three days during each year of the contract. Deliverables: The offeror is expected to develop, validate, and demonstrate its utility a full-integrated and functional cyber/bioinformatics infrastructure. This computational resource will include, but not limited to, the coordinated aggregate of diverse data sets that fully annotated, analytic software tools, hardware and other technologies, and is expected to provide them to the Government when the contract expires. In addition to those reports required by the other terms of this contract, the Contractor shall prepare and submit to the Government the following reports/deliverables in the manner and number specified below: Quarterly Progress Report The Quarterly Progress Report, plus abstract, shall consist of a description of the work performed during the quarter and the anticipated work plan for the coming quarter. The first reporting period consists of the first full quarter of performance including any fractional part of the initial month. Thereafter, the reporting period shall consist of three full calendar months. The report shall be submitted within 30 calendar days of the end of each quarter of the contract. A Quarterly Progress Report is not due for the final quarterly period of the contract. One copy of each Quarterly Progress Report shall be submitted to the Project Officer and the Contracting Officer by e-mail (addresses will be provided at the time of the award) in the PDF document format. Proprietary information may be withheld after approval by the Project Officer. Annual Report The Annual Report shall be compiled to briefly summarize the information contained in that year's quarterly reports. One copy of the Annual Report shall be submitted to the Project Officer and the Contracting Officer by e-mail (addresses will be provided at the time of the award) in the PDF document format. Final Report The Final Report, including an executive summary of no more than three pages, shall summarize all of the activities performed under the contract and should include both positive and negative results. Specifications for the software and hardware operations shall be documented in the Final Report. Results from the last quarter of the contract shall be included. References to previous quarterly progress reports should be cited to provide details of the studies. One copy of the Final Report shall be submitted to the Project Officer and to the Contracting Officer by e-mail (addresses to be provided at the time of the award) on or before the expiration date of the contract in the PDF document format. Proprietary information may be withheld after approval by the Project Officer. Period of performance: Estimated to be for one (1) base period with (4) option period. Responses: Respondents must submit one (1) copy of their capability statement for this requirement, not to exceed 20 pages (including all attachments, resumes, charts, etc.) presented in single-space, Times New Roman, 12 point font, with one inch margins, and compatible with MS Office Word 2003 or PDF format. No Zipped files. No telephone requests will be honored. Questions should be addressed to Joycelyn E. Bacchus at bacchusj@od.nih.gov. It is anticipated that a cost reimbursement, completion type contract will be awarded. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code for this requirement is 541712. Proprietary information if any, must be clearly marked. All information received that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. Please be advised that all submissions become Government Property and will not be returned. The Government shall not be held liable for any damages incurred if proprietary information is not properly identified. All capability statements sent in response to this Sources Sought Notice must be submitted electronically (via email) no later than 2:00 p.m. eastern standard time, Wednesday June 8, 2011 to Joycelyn E. Bacchus, Contracting Officer, at bacchusj@od.nih.gov. Contracting Office Address: 6011 Executive Blvd., Suite 505C Rockville, MD 20852 Primary Point of Contact: Joycelyn E. Bacchus bacchusj@od.nih.gov 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).
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/NIH/OoA/HHS-NIH-OD-OLAO-RDSS-11-005/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Contractor Site, United States
- Record
- SN02450612-W 20110520/110518234256-a9b2eddb589e77fdbac98ab2a9393265 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |