National Institutes of Health, Division of Research Contracts, OCM/OA/OD, 6100 Executive Blvd., MSC 7540, Room 6E01, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-7540

A -- GENE DISCOVERY IN THE VISUAL SYSTEM SOL NIH-EY-00-04 POC Karen M. Gamble (301) 496-4487 WEB: click here to download a copy of the RFP, http://ocm.od.nih.gov/drc/rfp.htm. E-MAIL: Karen M. Gamble, kg41h@nih.gov. The National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institutes of Health, has a requirement for Gene Discovery in the Visual System. The contractor will be responsible for production of high-quality representative cDNA libraries from specific anatomical regions of the human visual system and for assessment of the utility of the cDNA libraries for novel gene discovery. The primary goal of this project will be the discovery of genes expressed in the adult human visual system. It is expected that the cDNA libraries, clones, and the resulting sequence data shall be made available for the wide distribution to the scientific community. The contractor shall design quality assurance and quality control standards and protocols and methodologies to achieve all of the following: 1) Improve and/or develop new techniques for preparing high quality RNA for the purpose of generating cDNA libraries from human visual system tissue. Obtain microdissected high quality adult human tissue from ten regions of the visual system (retina, macula, fovea, retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), optic nerve/optic nerve head, cornea, trabecular meshwork, lens, visual cortex, and ciliary body/iris) for preparing RNA for cDNA library production. 2) Develop techniques for the preparation of high-quality representative cDNA libraries. Develop approaches for preparing high-quality directionally cloned cDNA libraries that are representative qualitatively or quantitatively of the genes expressed and are optimized to detect rare or unique transcripts (normalized libraries). The ten cDNA libraries from the ten regions of the human visual system are expected to contain large inserts (1.5 -- 2 kb average insert size) with reduced redundancy within each library and across libraries and enriched for representation of rare transcripts within each specific library. 3) Improve technologies for the purpose of assessing the quality of the cDNA libraries using high-throughput sequencing. Perform DNA sequencing on clones in the ten cDNA libraries prepared in item 2 in order to generate 75,000 to 100,000 3' ESTs. The contractor shall assemble these ESTs sequences to generate a unique UNIGENE set of at least 30,000 genes. Each member of the UNIGENE set will be sequenced to generate 5' ESTs for the purpose of identifying unique genes expressed within the specific region of the visual system. 4) Distribute biological material and disseminate data. The contractor shall agree to made cDNA libraries, clones, and sequencing data produced under this contract publicly available for wide use in the scientific community. In addition, the contractor must have demonstrated ability in the following areas: generating high quality cDNA libraries from mammalian tissue; efficiently constructing cDNA libraries from mammalian tissue that are representative qualitatively or quantitatively of the genes expressed in the tissue in which rare transcripts are well represented; and efficiently performing high-throughput sequencing of cDNA libraries from mammalian tissues and analyses of DNA sequencing data. The Standard Classification Code is 8733. RFP NIH-EY-00-04 will be available 15 days after the issuance of this synopsis, at the following website: http://ocm.od.nih.gov/drc/rfp.htm. THE SOLICITATION WILL BE AVAILABLE ELECTRONICALLY ONLY. OFFERORS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ROUTINELY CHECKING THIS WEBSITE FOR ANY SOLICITATION AMENDMENTS THAT MAY BE ISSUED. NO INDIVIDUAL NOTIFICATION OF ANY AMENDMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED. Proposals will be due 45 days after issuance of the solicitation. All responsible sources may submit a proposal which shall be considered. No collect calls will be accepted. See Numbered Note 26. Posted 02/11/00 (W-SN424751). (0042)

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