Title: Notice of Intent to Increase the Ceiling of Contract N66001-17-C-4012

This is a notice of intent to increase the ceiling of Contract N66001-17-C-4012 to John B. Pierce Laboratory, Inc. (J.B. Pierce), awarded by SSC Pacific on behalf of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency Biological Technologies Office (DARPA BTO) on 7 June 2016 for a base period of performance of 12 months followed by two (2), 12-month options. The effort under the contract supports the DARPA BTO Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) program and proposes to develop an innovative bioluminescent indicator system capable of producing detectable numbers of photons in response to single neural action potentials in implanted mammalian applications. This indicator system requires the development of chronically-expressed endogenous proteins based on the action of luciferin and luciferase, a bioluminescent system present in the firefly. A crucial task in the development and validation of this indicator system is the use of advanced fluorescent microscopy techniques, such as two-photon imaging, to establish objective metrics for performance. Based on the success of the indicator development tasks thus far, the new effort under the modification will allow for purchase of a more stable, much higher-throughput imaging and excitation laser. With this additional equipment, the effort will produce more reliable measurements to the J.B. Pierce team in less time and is expected to move this technology forward to transition to warfighters. The NAICS code for this procurement is 541711- Research and Development in Biotechnology. Due to the nature of Research and Development efforts, DARPA could not have reasonably estimated the results of the research from this program, which has seen breakthroughs that will benefit from the improved reliability and reduced downtime enabled with this purchase. It is expected that the technology will transition for use by the warfighter. This action includes a ceiling increase of approximately $295,398. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals or quotes and will be posted for 15 days. A determination by the Government not to compete based upon response to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Interested parties may submit comments in writing to the Contracting Officer, Mrs. Lynn Biedermann, Code 22530, SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific who may be reached by telephone at (619) 553-4479 or via email to [email protected].