Special Notice Notice of Intent to Award a Single-Source Procurement The Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 17, Network Contracting Office (NCO) 17, located at 5441 Babcock Road, Ste. 302, San Antonio, TX 78240 intends to solicit and award a single-source firm-fixed priced service contract for eight (8) months to the McLaughlin Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Inc., Great Falls, Montana for the following service: 0001: Non-personal service, Mouse Breeding Services required to breed and genotype rTg4510, rTg21221 and non-transgenic littermate mice to be used in direct connection with Dr. Miranda Orr s research project entitled, Alzheimer s disease-associated Tau Toxicity Induces Cellular Senescence in the Brain IACUC approved (1703-001). Unit of Issue: MO Qty: 8 Brief Service Description: The contractor shall provide services that meet the following requirements: Contractor will provide services required to breed and genotype transgenic mice that carry human tau transgenes that model Alzheimer s disease associated brain pathology, neurodegeneration and cognitive impairment. Male and female mice will be used, and non-transgene expressing control littermates will be kept as controls. The mice human tau transgene shall be engineered in a regulatable system. As such, the administration of doxycycline shall be used to suppress transgene expression. Contractor shall place specific mouse cohorts on doxycycline supplemented diets at specified ages for specified durations to suppress human tau expression, as this is a critical aspect of Dr. Orr s research hypothesis. Contractor will breed and maintain both the rTg4510 mouse line (high-levels of mutant tau to model neurodegeneration) along-side the controlled rTg21221 mouse line (high levels of normal human tau to control for high levels of tau expression). Specific Tasks: The rTg4510 mouse strain is a unique mouse model of Alzheimer s disease (AD) pathogenesis. These mice are transgenic for human tau protein with a mutation that causes frontotemporal dementia in humans. Compared to other mouse models of AD, these develop neurofibrillary tangles. Dr. Orr recently discovered that neurofibrillary tangles are necessary for the development of cellular senescence. As the goal of Dr. Orr s project is to study the contribution of cellular senescence in AD, this mouse model is the best choice. To achieve Dr. Orr s proposed research goals the Institute will be responsible for: Producing large cohorts of age-matched rTg4510 mice along with controlled, rTg21221 mice, and non-transgene expressing littermates required for Dr. Orr s research. Genotype identifying all pups, placing them into respective research aim cohorts and maintaining them until shipment is required at specified age intervals. rTg4510 and rTg21221 mice have regulatable transgene expression that is suppressed with doxycycline. The Institute will utilize this experimental approach to suppress transgene expression and follow the experimental design outlined by Dr. Orr. Contractor is to provide all services, equipment, and labor. Services will be performed at the McLaughlin Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Inc., until age intervals are met. At the appropriate age, mice will be delivered to the South Texas Veterans Health Care System; Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital, Research and Development Division, 7400 Merton Minter Blvd.; San Antonio, Texas 78229. The NAICS Code for this procurement is 541715 Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) with has a Small Business Size Standard of 1,000 employees. This action is accomplished under FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)(i), Soliciting from a Single-Source . This notice is not to be considered a request for quotations or proposals. No contract will be awarded based on offers received in response to this notice; however, any offers received may be used to determine if a comparable source is available and more advantageous to the government. All responsible sources may submit a response; which, if timely received, will be considered by the agency. If parties choose to respond, any cost associated with preparation and submission of data or cost incurred in response to this announcement shall be the sole responsibility of the contractor and will not be reimbursed by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. If no affirmative written response is received by the response date and time, a purchase order will be issued to the McLaughlin Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Inc., without any further notice. Interested firms must respond by email directly to
[email protected] no later than 12:00 P.M. CDT on 23 Aug 2018.