National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Contracts and Procurement Management Branch, OM, 79 T.W. Alexander Drive, 4401 Research Commons Building, P.O. Box 12874, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709

A -- ONCOGENE ANALYSIS FOR EPIDEMIOLOGIC STUDIES SOL NIH-ES-97-25 DUE 031897 POC Katherine A. Hughes, Contract Specialist (919) 541-0420; Thomas M. Hardee, Contracting Officer (919) 541-0429 Proposals are being solicited from qualified organizations having g the capability to provide development and application of molecular assays on human specimens gathered in epidemiologic studies. The primary focus shall be on developing optimized assay techniques for sensitive screening and verifying acquired mutations of selected genes associated with carcinogenesis, and for applying such assays in large numbers of human tumors to be supplied by the Government. The contractor shall have capability for accurate histopathologic evaluation of tumors and for microdissection of tumor tissue away from surrounding normal tissue in both frozen and fixed samples. The contractor may be required to screen normal DNA samples for known gene polymorphisms using PCR-RFLP or other appropriate techniques. The Contractor is responsible for analyzing specimens from approximately 5 to 10 tasks (1 to 2 per year). The number of individuals sampled in studies may range from 30 to several hundred. Although no one study will involve all assays, the contractor must have capability to perform a variety of different molecular techniques including: (1) extraction of high molecular weight DNA from frozen tumor tissue; (2) PCR amplification of selected genes, e.g., p53; (3) single strand conformation of polymorphism (SSCP) analysis of amplified DNA to screen for mutations; (4) direct sequencing of PCR amplified DNA with sensitivity adequate to identify mutants; (5) assay for loss of heterozygosity in tumor compared to normal tissue samples; and (6) PCR-RFLP analysis of known allelic variants of genes. The Government estimates the level of effort to require approximately 4,472 hours per year. The estimated period of performance is three years with two one-year options, for a possible five-year contract. For proposal evaluation purposes, offerors shall be required to describe their plan to approach a Model Study Task to provide analysis of 100 paraffin-embedded non small cell lung carcinoma blocks from tumors from nickel-exposed patients, for mutations in exons 4-9 of the tumor suppressor gene p53. Offerors shall also provide DNA analysis on Government-furnished microtome slices of fixed tissue from coded human tumor samples along with DNA primer sequences for amplification and sequence of a selected gene. All responsible sources may submit an offer which will be considered. (0010)

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