Bioethic Research and Training Services

THIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT (NOI), NOT A REQUEST FOR A QUOTATION. A SOLICITATION DOCUMENT WILL NOT BE ISSUED AND QUOTATIONS WILL NOT BE REQUESTED.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to award a fixed priced purchase order on a sole source basis to WASSERMAN DAVID THURMAN, University Park, Maryland 20782-1173, UEI: N497N7LFMKQ9 for the Clinical Center/ Department of Bioethics. The Bioethics Department vision that it become the nation’s leading center for bioethics and, consistent with NIH’s
training mission, create a major training fellowship for future bioethicists.

The Bioethics Department would provide faculty with strong bioethics backgrounds to strengthen the training components of the department and to educate members of the NIH community on bioethical issues. To achieve this, the Department created several educational programs: Ethics and Rounds, held four to six times a year as part of the Clinical Center’s Grand Rounds Program; a comprehensive training course, Ethical and Regulatory Aspects of Clinical Research, on the ethics of research; and a rigorous fellowship program to train bioethicists for the future.

The fellowship involves an extensive formal educational program including a seminar on basic bioethics, a seminar on advanced topics, a course on the ethics of human subject research, training in the use of statistics in research, public speaking training, assignment as an observer on one of the NIH IRB’s, participation on one of the Clinical Center rounds, service on the ethics consultation service, and approximately 60% of time devoted to mentored research.

In order to continually strengthen the training program for fellows, the Department of Bioethics supplements its faculty by bringing in leading ethics scholars to enrich and broaden the scope of ethics training received by the fellows but also to bring new perspectives and to share these with fellows through teaching, mentoring and collaborative research.

David Wasserman, JD, MA is trained in law and psychology and interested in ethics and genetics, an important and growing field of bioethics. He is co-editor of Harming Future Persons: Ethics, Genetics, and the Nonidentity Problem, as well as Quality of Life and Human Difference: Genetic Testing, Health Care, and Disability. His many writings involve issues of ethics, moral status, health-care decision making, disabilities, risk and benefit, and other major areas of bioethics and research. The issues of genetic
testing and management and releasing of test results are a major issue in research today. Two of the current faculty of the Department of Bioethics are funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and they are particularly interested in the ethics of returning genetic testing results. Thus Dr. Wasserman’s knowledge and work in this field intersect the work being done in the Department.

Dr. Wasserman was specifically sought out to share his expertise in ethics and genetics, disabilities, genetic testing in children, risk and benefit, informed consent and genetic testing, and discrimination in research, all of which touch on current research interests of the Department or are among the areas of future investigation being contemplated by members of the Department. Dr. Wasserman’s knowledge in these areas will strengthen the research product of the Department.

Prevention Genetics is a CLIA-accredited laboratory that is uniquely able to provide genetic analysis and genetic sequencing of the tenascin X gene. It is the only US laboratory providing this service for this gene. It is also the only US laboratory offering screening for the chimera deletion.

This acquisition is being conducted under the authority of the FAR Subpart 13.106-1(b)(i), Contracting officers may solicit from one source if the contracting officer determines that the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available. The total dollar value of this purchase order shall not exceed the SAT at $250,000.00.

Interested concerns capable of providing the same or similar products or services as described in this notice may submit a capability statement outlining their capabilities. Capability Statements must be received within the time set forth in this synopsis to be considered by the Government. A determination to compete this proposed contract based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining
whether to conduct a competitive procurement.

Each response should include the following Business Information:
a. UEI
b. Company Name, address, POC, Phone and Email address
c. Current GSA Schedules or NAICS codes appropriate to this Award.
d. Type of Company (i.e., small business, 8(a), woman owned, HUBZone, veteran owned, etc.) as validated in System for Award Management (SAM). All offerors must register on the SAM located at http://www.sam.gov/portal/SAM/#1
e. Capability Statement

Comments to this announcement may be submitted to the Clinical Center, Office of Purchasing and Contracts, prior to the closing date specified in this announcement, electronically to the attention of Grace Wong-Darko, Lead Contract Specialist, Grace.Wong-Darko@nih.gov by the due date (12/17/2024) and time (12:00 PM) marked in this notice.