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PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE ** NOTICE OF INTENT

NOI-NIAID-23-2184302

NAICS – 112990

This is a Notice of Intent, not a request for proposal. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to negotiate on an other than full and open competition basis with Taconic Biosciences Inc to procure Constitutive Knockout Recovery Model Mice to be used in studies characterizing the differential role of main skin-derived proteases in keratinocyte wound healing process and the modulatory effects of a new peptidase inhibitor isolated from Ixodes scapularis salivary glands, the vector of Lyme disease.

The NIH Rocky Mountain Laboratory (RML) Laboratory of Bacteriology (LB) Tick-Pathogen Transmission Unit (TPTU) focuses on understanding how molecules from ticks are critical for the success of tick feeding and pathogen transmission. A deeper understanding of tick feeding biology is needed to discover weak links that can be targeted for effective development of anti-tick and/or pathogen-blocking vaccines. Ticks are blood-sucking arthropods that developed through the evolution interesting strategies to modulate local skin defensive responses, such as itching, healing, hemostasis and inflammation. Skin-derived proteases are involved in signaling process of cell proliferation, migration, adhesion, matrix degradation, inflammatory cell chemotaxis and cytokine activation. Thus, they may be targets for saliva-derived molecules that are injected into the host during blood feeding and are also potentially involved facilitating pathogen transmission. TPTU is focusing studies in characterizing the differential role of main skin-derived proteases in keratinocyte wound healing process and the modulatory effects of a new peptidase inhibitor isolated from Ixodes scapularis salivary glands, the vector of Lyme disease. Since these skin-derived proteases seems to have an essential role in orchestrate the signaling involved in wound healing, and are good targets for vector arthropod molecules to avoid host skin barriers, the lab requires the use of Knock Out (KO) animals to evaluate the importance of signaling performed by these peptidases in the wound healing process in vivo. Findings from these studies will impact the understanding about vector biology with the goal of developing new strategies to control and treat vector-borne diseases. Taconic Biosciences Inc is the sole provider/breeder of the Constitutive Knockout Recovery Model Mice required for this study. The standard order will include a minimum of four (4) mutant mice (males and/or females), heterozygous for the selected mutation on a mixed 129S5;B6 background, validated genotyping protocols, and animal health data. Taconic Biosciences and NIH have worked exhaustively to reach an agreed upon license agreement containing the legal verbiage necessary to accommodate a license model for NIH to breed in house with each model with a fully executed license.

The statutory authority for this sole source requirement is 41 U.S.C. 253 (c) (1) as implemented by FAR 13.106-1 only one responsible source and no other supply of service will satisfy agency requirements. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. All responsible sources that could provide comparable services may submit a capability statement that will be considered by email (subject line to reference NOI-NIAID-23-2184302) to Dana Monroe at dana.monroe@nih.gov by 5:00pm ET Monday, September 18, 2023. All responses received by the closing date of this synopsis will be considered by the Government. A determination not to compete this requirement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government.