HIGH THROUGHPUT DRUG SCREENING FACILITY FOR NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASE
Release Date: October 19, 2001
NOTICE: NOT-NS-02-004
RFP Available: NIH-NINDS-RFP-01-06
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
The Neurodegeneration Cluster of the National Institute of Neurological
disorders and Stroke, (NINDS), National Institutes of Health, has a requirement
to identify a service facility capable of providing two kinds of expertise to
scientists who have identified a potential assay: first, adapting the assay for
high throughput applications and second, testing the assay against large,
diverse collections of compounds. Neruodegenerative disease assays will be
supplied by NINDS investigators as selected by NINDS. NINDS anticipates using
the results of the contract to 1) identify compounds, active in
neurodegeneration assays, that will be made available to investigators for use
as research tools and 2) validate assays as useful High Throughput Drug
Screening (HTS) targets, to encourage their use in further drug development.
Specific Requirements:
1. Assay Development: Potential assays for testing at the facility will be
identified by NINDS. The contractor shall work collaboratively at the facility
with investigators that have assays to adapt the assays to HTS format. The
goal of this contract will be to develop and screen assays at the rate of
approximately three per year. Assays may be cell- or protein-based and will be
models of neurodegenerative disease.
2. Compound Libraries: The contractor shall identify large, diverse compound
collections suitable for HTS. These libraries will be in the public domain.
The contractor shall be responsible for assisting NINDS investigators in
obtaining additional quantities of active compounds for their use in research.
For example, this assistance may involve identifying a source for purchase or
synthesis of particular compounds.
3. Screening: The contractor shall subject the assays to HTS and analyze the
results to identify individual compounds that are active in each assay.
Compounds will be tested over a limited concentration range and data for
active compounds will be gathered for each concentration tested.
4. Data Analysis: The contractor shall perform structure-function analysis of
compounds active in individual assays. The contractor will identify common
chemical moieties that have activity within a given assay.
5. Quality Control: The contractor shall gather data concerning the consistency
of the results obtained for individual screens. At a minimum, this will
include the behavior of active compounds in multiple tests at one
concentration as well as over a range of concentrations. The behavior of
necessary controls in individual screens will be documented in screening
reports.
Monitoring of all contract work and report deliverables, including quality
control, shall be performed by the Contracting Officer and the Project Officer
via on-site visits, monthly monitoring of costs, review of quarterly technical
reports and review of individual screening reports.
Intellectual Property Considerations:
NINDS may collaborate with an outside investigator who has proprietary rights to
assays that may be adapted for HTS under this contract. The Project Officer will
identify this Collaborator at the time of assignment and in this case the
following considerations regarding Intellectual Property Rights will
be applicable.
Under certain conditions the Contractor may be eligible for filing for patent
protection to protect any inventions that they may have made during the course
of their contract assignments. For example, the Contractor may use proprietary
approaches to significantly modify or enhance an assay to make it suitable for
HTS. When the original assay comes from an external collaborator with the
NINDS, the collaborator’s original discovery needs to be protected. Therefore,
the following Intellectual Property Considerations are part of the contract that
provides that protection and assures that the collaborator does not lose control
of his original discovery.
Contractor agrees to promptly notify the NINDS and Collaborator in writing of
any inventions made by the Contractor’s principal investigator or any other
employees or agents of the Contractor, whether patentable or not, which are
conceived and/or first actually reduced to practice in the performance of this
study using Collaborator’s assay. Contractor agrees to consult with
Collaborator concerning commercialization of this technology. Where practicable
and appropriate, Contractor will permit collaborator to participate in
commercialization of this technology on terms to be negotiated in good faith by
Collaborator and Contractor.
Protection of Proprietary Data:
The assays to be developed and screened under this contract are to be regarded
as proprietary in nature. Data generated using an assay proprietary to a
Collaborator will be kept confidential and shared only with the NINDS. The
Contractor retains the right to publish and present research results subject to
the following terms. Under no circumstances are assays or any information
associated with these assays to be released or divulged without prior
notification of the Contracting Officer. All articles and /or presentations
that pertain to the work to be performed under this contract shall acknowledge
the collaborative efforts of all participants, including contributing members of
the Contractor’s staff, Collaborating investigators, and NINDS staff as
appropriate. Prior to publication, articles shall be submitted to the NINDS
Project Officer for review. The contractor shall be required to acknowledge the
support of the NINDS whenever publicizing work performed under the contract in
any media.
Personnel with established expertise in medicinal chemistry, high throughput
drug screening, pharmacological structure-function analysis and sufficient
seniority and breadth of experience in neurodegenerative disease research to
judge the needs of the research community with regard to drug screens for
neurodegeneration will be needed to perform this research.
It is anticipated that one award may be made for a period of five years in
September 2002.
Request for Proposals (RFP) NIH-NINDS-01-06 will be AVAILABLE ELECTRONICALLY in
the COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY. It will be available at this website
(http://www.ninds.nih.gov/funding/areas/contracts_management_branch/index.htm)
15 or more calendar days after the issuance of
this synopsis. OFFERORS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ROUTINELY CHECKING THIS WEBSITE FOR
ANY POSSIBLE SOLICITATION AMENDMENTS THAT MAY BE ISSUED. NO INDIVIDUAL
NOTIFICATION OF ANY AMENDMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED. All responsible sources may
submit a proposal which shall be considered by the agency. Refer to numbered
note 26.
INQUIRIES
Inquiries may be directed to:
Patricia S. Denney, Contracting Officer
Contracts Management Branch
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Neuroscience Center, Room 3287
6001 Executive Boulevard, MSC 9531
Bethesda, MD 20892-9531
Tel: (301) 496-1813
Fax: (301) 402-4225
Email: PD22N@NIH.GOV
Weekly TOC for this Announcement
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices
|
|
|
|
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
|
|
|
|
NIH... Turning Discovery Into Health®
|