This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice.

This notice is issued to help determine the availability of qualified companies technically capable of meeting the Government requirement and to determine the method of acquisition. It is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses will not be considered as proposals or quotes. No award will be made as a result of this notice. The Government will NOT be responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice. This notice is strictly for research and information purposes only.

Background: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation's leading medical research agency and the primary Federal agency whose mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability, conducting, supporting and making medical discoveries that improve people's health and save lives.

Drug development methodologies currently followed are often time consuming, expensive, and highly inefficient. This is mainly due to a lack of physiologically relevant model systems exemplified by decades of reliance on non-human animal models for disease modeling and drug discovery. Recent progress in stem cell biology, specifically reprogramming of somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and their subsequent directed differentiation to different cell types, including but not limited to cells of liver, neural, and heart lineages, has provided physiologically relevant systems for modeling human diseases and drug discovery studies.

However, further optimization of differentiation protocols are necessary to generate fully mature somatic cell types from iPS cells. Aim of this project is to systematically identify processes and mechanisms controlling hepatocyte differentiation of stem cells by in-depth metabolomic and lipidomic analysis.
Purpose and Objectives: Objective of this project is to first supply 100 ul packed cell volume of human hepatocytes and human stem cell derived hepatocyte-like cells to Metabolon for comprehensive metabolomic and lipidomic analysis. Data from metabolomic and lipidomic analysis will then be provided to Stem Cell Translation Laboratory (SCTL), NCATS.

Contractor Requirements:
The vendor will perform metabolomic and lipidomic analysis of human hepatocytes and human stem cell derived hepatocyte-like cells to better understand mechanisms regulating hepatocyte differentiation.

Critical to success of this project are the capability to perform integrated metabolomic and lipidomic analysis for high resolution detection of metabolites present at very low concentrations (pico molar levels) combined with identification of maximum number of metabolites per biological sample.

The contractor will perform and/or provide the following:
1. Range finding pilot study for lipidomic analysis

2. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/tandem accurate mass spectrometry with peak identification, deconvolution, and chemical intelligence for rapid and accurate identification of upwards of 1,000 metabolites per biological sample.

3. Curation, analysis, and interpretation of data

Government Responsibilities:
SCTL, NCATS will provide different cell samples including human hepatocytes, human stem cell derived hepatocyte-like cells and other intermediate cell types from hepatocyte differentiation for metabolomic and lipidomic analysis.

Delivery or Deliverables:
The contractor will provide summaries and documentation to Government staff as necessary. Contractor will provide raw and analyzed metabolomic and lipidomic data to SCTL, NCATS.

Reporting requirements:
The Contractor should provide monthly updates on the progress of the project, or more often as appropriate.

Data Rights:
Data generated as a result of the metabolomic and lipidomic analysis will be the properties of NIH, SCTL, NCATS

Publications and Publicity:
Contractor will not publish the results of the work

Confidentiality of Information:
Contractor will keep the results of the work confidential.

Capability statement /information sought. Contractors that believe they possess the ability to provide the requirement should submit documentation of their ability to meet each of the project requirements to the Contract Specialist. The response should directly and specifically state in the, capabilities statement, which project requirements you can supply. Contractors must also provide their Company Name, DUNS Number, Physical Address, Point of Contact, and Size and Type of Business (e.g., 8(a), HubZone, etc.) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code and any other information that may be helpful in developing or finalizing the acquisition requirements.
The information submitted must be must be in an outline format that addresses each of the elements of the project requirement and in the capability statement /information sought paragraphs stated herein. A cover page and an executive summary may be included but is not required.
The response must include the respondents' technical and administrative points of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses.

All responses (capability statements) sent in response to this Small Business Sources Sought Notice must be submitted electronically (via e-mail) to the Contract Specialist. Facsimile responses are NOT accepted.
The response must be submitted to Stacey Polk, Contract Specialist at [email protected].

The response must be received no later than the closing date of this notice and reference Sources Sought Notice HHS-NIH-NIDA-SSSA-SBSS-2017-264.
"Disclaimer and Important Notes: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work.

Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

Confidentiality: No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s)."

Bid Protests Not Available