Phage Library Screening

The Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service seeks phage library screening services to identify peptide sequences binding to bovine and porcine receptors, with quotations due July 13, 2026 at 1:00 PM CT. This is a total small business set-aside; only small business concerns are eligible.

Place of performance is the PA National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas. The NAICS code is 541380, Testing Laboratories and Services, with a small business size standard of $19 million. The contract incorporates service contract labor standards with prevailing wage rates for Kansas counties of Pottawatomie and Riley, effective May 13, 2026, covering occupational classifications from administrative support through technical positions.

The solicitation includes two contract line items: CLIN 0001 for three units of phage display library and screening for one protein, and CLIN 0002 for up to six units of the same service. Delivery is required 30 days after award. The contractor must perform quality control of provided proteins within 12 days of receipt, purchase two different phage display libraries per protein, immobilize target proteins within 14 days of QC completion, conduct three rounds of selection with amplification within 28 days, select and test at least 30 blue-plaque clones via ELISA and sequencing within 35 days, and deliver 6–12 candidate peptide sequences with corresponding amino acid and nucleotide sequences and raw sequencing data. The contractor must provide a minimum of 50,000 NGS reads per protein per library within 49 days of order receipt and renounce all intellectual property rights to discovered sequences.

This is a firm fixed-price purchase order for commercial items. Award will be made to the lowest priced, technically acceptable offer. Technical acceptability requires detailed explanations of approach and technical knowledge with site-specific methodology; general or machine-generated explanations are unacceptable. The contracting officer is Erin Riffey at 970-631-2294, and questions should be submitted to Erin.Riffey@usda.gov. The offer validity period is 90 calendar days.