The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), Division of Laboratory Science (DLS), intends to award a sole source purchase order to University of Maryland School of Public Health, 2242L School of Public Health Building, College Park, MD 20742 for the procurement of services of identification of all bacteria present in 3 separate lots of 15 brands of smokeless tobacco.

The statutory authority for this sole source acquisition is 10 U.S.C 2304(c)(1) in accordance with FAR Part 6.302-1- only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy the agency requirement. The NAICS code for this procurement is 541712, Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology).

The purpose of this acquisition is to allow the University of Maryland, School of Public Health to extend their previous work in cigarette tobacco into smokeless tobacco, specifically to identify the bacteria present in 3 separate lots of 15 brands of smokeless tobacco and their effects related to the generation of tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs). The University of Maryland, School of Public Health is the only responsible source capable of meeting the Government's requirement because they are the only entity that is currently using a state-of-the-art, high-throughput sequencing technology (454 pyrosequencing) to comprehensively catalogue the total bacterial metagenome (total bacterial diversity) of tobacco products. This technology generates tens of thousands of rRNA gene sequence reads per sample processed, allowing for unparalleled results regarding the identification of total bacterial communities present in tobacco products. No other laboratories are currently performing the following specific methods on tobacco products to evaluate total bacterial communities: total DNA extraction, DNA purification, 16S PCR, 454 pyrosequencing, a bioinformatics-based approach to manage, model and understand raw sequence reads from the 454, and novel statistical methods to compare results within and between products. Thus, the University of Maryland, School of Public Health, is the only company that can be used.

As a result of this synopsis, no competitive solicitation will be posted on FedBizOpps. We will issue only one solicitation to Cambridge Isotope Laboratories. However, firms that believe they can meet these requirements are encouraged to identify themselves and give written notice by providing a capability statement to the Contracting Officer by May 19, 2012. The Contracting Officer will not respond to verbal request. All requests must be in writing.

A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed action will be based on responses to this notice and are solely within the discretion of the Contracting Officer. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Inquiries shall be sent to Vallerie Redd by email at [email protected] and reference solicitation number 2012-Q-14542 on the subject line.

 

 

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