Notice_of_Intent.pdf

PRE-SOLICITATION NON-COMPETITIVE (NOTICE OF INTENT) SYNOPSIS

INTRODUCTION

THIS IS A PRE-SOLICITATION NON-COMPETITIVE (NOTICE OF INTENT)

SYNOPSIS TO AWARD A PURCHASE ORDER WITHOUT PROVIDING FOR FULL

OR OPEN COMPETITION.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Office of Acquisitions (OA) on behalf of the National Institute of Dental and Cranicofacial Research (NIDCR) intends to negotiate and award a purchase order without providing for full and open competition to the Institute for Molecular Medicine, Finland (FIMM) at the University of Helsinki, Meilahti research campus for Single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) services.

NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS) CODE

The intended procurement is classified under NAICS code 611310, Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools, Large Business Size, $30 Million.

REGULATORY AUTHORITY

The resultant contract will include all applicable provisions and clauses in effect through the Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2021-04, effective 01/19/2021.

This acquisition is conducted under the procedures as prescribed in FAR Subpart 13— Simplified Acquisition Procedures at an amount not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold ($250,000).

STATUTORY AUTHORITY

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 253(c) under provisions of the statutory authority of FAR Subpart 6.302-1—Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENT

Single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) is a method used to identify transcriptionally distinct subpopulations within a given tissue. Dr. Kerosuo’s lab studies neural crest development, and this collaborative project aims to understand transcriptional profiles of neural crest subpopulations during various stages of development. This is a high quality method and the Kerosuo lab investigators expect the results to reveal interesting details on neural crest development, which will be an essential part of data in their ongoing investigation that will be submitted for publication in a high impact journal within the year 2021.The results will also be publicly available for the neural crest research field and thus serve a large community working on craniofacial development, which is in line with the central mission of NIDCR.

Background

The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) is a branch of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). The institute aims to improve dental, oral, and craniofacial health through research, research training, and the dissemination of health information. The overall research goal of Dr. Kerosuo’s lab is to understand how stemness is initiated and maintained in the neural crest. The neural crest gives rise to components of multiple organs, the peripheral nervous system, craniofacial skeleton, and pigmentation to name a few. The requested single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis is a part of an ongoing project where the Kerosuo lab investigators analyze stemness formation in chicken embryos by using multiple sophisticated techniques including highly multiplex spatial single cell transcriptomics, which determines gene expression of predetermined candidates with high special resolution, as well as bulk- RNAseq that reveals novel players. The scRNA-seq data also provides an opportunity to perform pseudo time analysis to understand linearity of cell fate determination in the neural crest. This additional piece of data will perfectly complement these two techniques by revealing transcriptional profiles including unknown novel genes on a single cell level.

Period of Performance

Within 60-90 days after receipt of order

Project Description

The Contractor must be a local company near the University of Helsinki, Meilahti research campus in the Northern Finland area. The cells for these samples need to be collected fresh and there is a maximum of two hours window from when the cells are collected to when they need to be processed. Since there are eight samples, the dissection process itself takes two hours (when first samples have been waiting for two hours the last samples are being dissected out).

The contractor shall provide the following services:

• Cell count and viability measurement

• Single cell partitioning using 10X Genomics Chromium Controller

• Capture of 500 – 10,000 cells per sample prep

• Reverse transcription and barcoding, cDNA amplification and quality check

• Library preparation and library quality check

• Library quantification (Q-PCR) and next generation sequencing (Illumina

NovaSeq 6000 system,FIMM Genomics Sequencing Unit)

• Raw base call (BCL) file demultiplexing and fastq file generation (Cell Ranger mkfastq pipeline,10x Genomics)

• Sample specific single cell gene expression analysis and data aggregation

(Cell Ranger count and aggr pipelines, 10x Genomics)

Deliverables:

i. Raw sequence (fastq) files

ii. Single cell 3' gene expression data generated with Cell Ranger count pipeline

(10x Genomics)

iii. Combined data from multiple samples in an experiment-wide gene-barcode matrix and analysis generated with the Cell Ranger aggr pipeline (10X Genomics)

CONTRACTING WITHOUT PROVIDING FOR FULL OR OPEN COMPETITION

(INCLUDING BRAND-NAME) DETERMINATION

The determination by the Government to award a contract without providing for full and open competition is based upon the market research conducted as prescribed in FAR Part 10—Market Research.

It is being recommended that this requirement is sole-sourced to the Institute for Molecular Medicine, Finland (FIMM) at the University of Helsinki, Meilahti research campus. Due to the nature of scRNA-seq technique, the cells for these samples need to be collected fresh and processed within a maximum of two hours. Since the expertise for the sample collection is in Helsinki, Finland, and there only is one core facility that provides this type of service, this provider is our only option. The Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) is an independent translational research institute focusing on human genomics and precision medicine, under the umbrella of the Helsinki Institute of Life Science at the University of Helsinki. FIMM has a driving mission to perform innovative research on patients and populations targeted towards understanding drivers of health and disease.

FIMM provides single-cell sequencing using the 10x method. FIMM on the Meilahti campus is the only company that does this in the Helsinki area. Our collaborator at the University of Helsinki, Finland, has the required knowhow to collect the desired samples and the cells need to be processed immediately, and thus the service needs to be provided by a local core facility. NIDCR requires the sole source purchase of scRNA-seq services to add an important piece of data to the main project ongoing in the Kerosuo lab.

CLOSING STATEMENT

This synopsis is not a request for competitive proposals. However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this notice. Responses to this notice shall contain sufficient information to establish the interested parties’ bona-fide capabilities for fulfilling the requirement and include: unit price, list price, shipping and handling costs, the delivery period after contract award, the prompt payment discount terms, the F.O.B. Point (Destination or Origin), the Dun & Bradstreet Number (DUNS), the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and the certification of business size. All offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) www.sam.gov.”

A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The information received will normally be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to proceed on a non-competitive basis or to conduct a competitive procurement.

All responses must be received by 02/09/2021 at 12:00pm EST. Responses must be submitted via the FedConnect webportal (www.fedconnect.net). Potential Offerors do not need to register to view a notice; however, in order to submit questions and/or response to this Notice, an account will need to be established. Should you require a waiver not to use FedConnect, please contact the Contracting Officer listed in this notice.

“All responsible sources may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency.”

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