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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF JULY 21, 2017 FBO #5719
DOCUMENT

66 -- ALTITUDE CHAMBER FOR ONGOING RODENT ALTITUDE RESEARCH STUDIES Closes at 10:00 AM MT - Attachment

Notice Date

7/19/2017
 

Notice Type

Attachment
 

NAICS

541712 — Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs;Network Contracting Office;NCO 19;6162 South Willow Drive, Suite 300;Greenwood Village CO 80111
 

ZIP Code

80111
 

Solicitation Number

VA25917N0844
 

Response Due

7/24/2017
 

Archive Date

7/25/2017
 

Point of Contact

Tammera Cardinal
 

Small Business Set-Aside

Total Small Business
 

Description

Sources Sought: Altitude Chamber and Forced Swim Test Tanks This Sources Sought Notice is issued for information and planning purposes only. This is not a solicitation or a request for proposal. An award will not be made on offers received in response to this notice, and it shall not be implied the Government is committed to providing any solicitation or award following this notice. The Government will not pay for any information received in response to this request, nor will the Government compensate a respondent for any costs incurred in developing information provided. Department of Veterans Affairs, VISN 19, Salt Lake City VA Health Care Center is seeking a potential qualified contractor to provide the following: Performance Work Statement: Altitude Chamber and Forced Swim Test Tanks: Responding companies shall include any relevant information (specifications, cut sheets, brochures, capability statement, etc.) confirming their ability to meet the service requirements in the Performance Work Statement and supply product with the salient characteristics outlined in this request. In addition to providing all documents necessary to validate the above requirements can be met (or exceeded), interested vendors shall include with their response: Complete Company Name and Address: DUNS Number: CAGE Code: Applicable NAICS Code and Business Size: Company Point of Contact Name: Email Address: Phone Number: Teaming Agreements or Joint Venture Partners (if Large Business): Delivery lead-time: Place of Manufacture: Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the U.S. Government to form a binding contract or agreement. This notice shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation, or ultimately award a contract, nor does it restrict the Government to a particular acquisition approach. The Government will in no way be bound to this information if any solicitation is issued. more DLB (more immobility and a shorter latency to immobility) in the forced swim test (FST) vs. at sea level. Our recent studies show that most SSRIs (Prozac ®, Paxil ® and Lexapro ®) do not work in rats housed at altitude, implying that a targeted approach may be required in therapeutics for hypoxia-related depression. Pilot studies with our model imply that hypobaric hypoxia lowers brain striatal serotonin and forebrain total creatine (a brain bioenergetic marker) in rats. A similar drop in forebrain creatine levels is also seen in people residing at altitude (4,500ft) vs. at sea level. Our overarching hypothesis therefore is that chronic hypoxia may cause brain biochemical deficits in people, leading to increased rates of MDD and TRD, and increasing suicide risk, thus implying the need for more optimal therapeutic options for MDD in chronic hypoxia. We therefore plan to first test for efficacy of standard of care ADs from serotoninergic and noradrenergic classes in our animal model for hypobaric hypoxia, towards optimizing standard of care antidepressant use in veterans exposed to chronic hypoxia. We will then test novel options for antidepressants with the potential to correct hypoxia-induced brain deficits in this animal model: dietary augmentation with the serotonin precursor, 5-hydroxytryptophan (5HTP, to enhance brain serotonin levels), the brain bioenergetic marker- creatine (to enhance brain bioenergetics), and combination therapy with (5HTP+creatine). Dietary supplementation will be performed alone to test for antidepressant potential of supplemented products, and in combination with SSRI treatment, as an option to improve SSRI efficacy in hypoxia-related depression. This animal model will allow us to study hypoxia-related depression in ways not possible with human subjects, and data from these studies will lend themselves directly to subsequent optimized clinical trials in veterans living with chronic hypoxia. Chronic hypoxia in US veterans is a significant issue: 20% of veterans in the VHA suffer from COPD alone, 40% of young veterans are smokers, and another 2 million live in the high altitude intermountain west, implying that study of hypoxia-related depression would benefit a significant portion of the veteran population. Depression affects female veterans even more severely than males, with 27% of women veterans at the VHA diagnosed with depression, and our pilot data suggest that chronic hypoxia is particularly detrimental to female depression. Data from these studies are thus expected to serve to significantly reduce depression status, rates of AD treatment resistance and suicidal behavior in the veteran population. Scope of Work We study the effects of living at altitude on depression and antidepressant function using an animal model. We house animals in 3 altitude groups: sea level, 4,500ft or 10,000ft. We house 2/3rds of our animals in altitude chambers which simulate altitudes of sea level (hyperbaric conditions) or 10,000ft (hypobaric conditions), while the rest are housed on counters in the same room at local altitude conditions of 4,500ft. In the interest of improving productivity on this research project, we aim to build a new altitude chamber similar to the ones we currently use. The co-investigator, Dr. Shami Kanekar, will plan and supervise the building of the new altitude chamber and FST tanks, with overall supervision of the project by Dr. Perry Renshaw (PI). Reporting Requirements All animal records and data from the experiments will be generated by lab personnel and reported to the project Principal Investigator, Dr. Renshaw and Co-Investigator, Dr. Kanekar. Dr. Kanekar will design experimental plans and procedures, and supervise all altitude and FST experiments, and will then review and analyze the data. The PI, Dr. Renshaw, will serve in an advisory and supervisor role over the whole project. Contract Security In this proposed study, we will not use human subjects. Also, the generated data will not connect to any VA computer network.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/VA/VARMCCC/VARMCCC/VA25917N0844/listing.html)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: VA259-17-N-0844 VA259-17-N-0844.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=3671703&FileName=VA259-17-N-0844-000.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=3671703&FileName=VA259-17-N-0844-000.docx

 

Note: If links are broken, refer to Point of Contact above or contact the FBO Help Desk at 877-472-3779.
 

Place of Performance

Address: VA Health Care Center;Department of Veteran Affairs;500 Foothill Dr.;Salt Lake City, UT

Zip Code: 84148
 

Record

SN04586484-W 20170721/170719235429-bc68e7080bb23435cfe5e4ff0ed6cc01 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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