SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- Request for Information for Advanced, Innovative Approaches for Rapid Sample Preservation and Transport in Austere Environments
- Notice Date
- 8/30/2011
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- Contracting Office
- ACC-APG SCRT - Natick (PADDS), ATTN: CCRD-NA, Building 1, Kansas Street, Natick, MA 01760-5011
- ZIP Code
- 01760-5011
- Solicitation Number
- WARPADD-RFI-RSPT
- Response Due
- 9/29/2011
- Archive Date
- 11/28/2011
- Point of Contact
- Allison Griffin, 508-233-4495
- E-Mail Address
-
ACC-APG SCRT - Natick (PADDS)
(allison.griffin@us.army.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This Request for Information, from the US Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) in Natick, MA, is a market survey for advanced, innovative approaches for rapid sample preservation and transport in austere environments. Topic objectives include innovative technologies to enable a low cost capability to preserve and exfiltrate small medical and environmental biological samples from austere locations and precisely deliver the sample to a pre-determined recovery area. Austere locations are defined as remote and typically inaccessible locations. This capability will be used to exfiltrate medical samples from an inaccessible area, perhaps with chemical and/or biological issues, to enable rapid receipt of physical samples at a laboratory analysis facility. In austere and inaccessible environments, exfiltration of critical medical, chemical and/or biological samples can be difficult. Lack of maintained infrastructure, inaccessible or remote locations and other factors can limit the ability to transport samples from the area of interest to a location with suitable laboratory facilities. The chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) sample, which will weigh up to approximately two pounds, will need to be packaged to preserve the sample integrity, and then transported distances ranging from 50 to 1000+ miles to a point within approximately commercial Global Positioning System (GPS) levels of precision. Innovative solutions may choose to focus on part or all of this time/distance/weight performance trade space. For instance, lighter packages that travel shorter distances, or heavier packages that travel longer distances. At the end of the transport, the sample should be able to be accurately delivered (commercial GPS-levels of precision) to a pre-determined and/or in-route updated location for recovery by ship or by a ground recovery team. Transport could take as little as 1 hour or as much as 4 days from the time the sample is packaged. The system needs to provide near real time tracking of the sample from initiation to the final delivery location. Because this system will be used in remote locations and austere environments, a self contained set up that can be operated by non-expert personnel after minimal training is required. For more than 50 years, researchers have defaulted to freezing biological samples at -20 C or -80 C as a means of preservation and storage. It is critical to maintain the integrity and quality of nucleic acids for use in downstream analysis. Using current standards for sample preservation via freezing and shipping with dry-ice, proposed approaches would be constrained by a requirement to include in an insulated container approx 7 lbs of dry ice for every 24 hours. Dry ice mass should be calculated to ensure complete sublimation will not occur prior to the package arriving at the destination site. Sublimation is the transition from solid directly to gas since it does not transition from solid to liquid to gas. Storing and preserving the quality of nucleic acids at ambient room temperature would represent a paradigm shift with significant savings in cost, environmental impact and ensured sample integrity. Innovative approaches to room temperature sample preservation may be included in the proposed approaches as a means to extend the performance envelop since this may significantly reduce the size/weight limits. Opportunities for proof of concept demonstrations may occur as part of a larger DoD project. The preliminary times for these demonstrations are: Jan 2013, Jan 2014 and Apr 2014. Proprietary information will not be disclosed outside of the U.S. government. All interested firms, regardless of size, are encouraged to respond to this request for information. This Request for Information is for planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a Request for Proposal or as an obligation on the part of the Government. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this request or otherwise pay for information solicited. A pre-solicitation notice will be published if a formal solicitation is generated. No awards will result from this request. We are seeking sources, technical and product information for products which meet the DoD requirements, or may meet requirements with modifications. Firms responding to this RFI shall bear all risk and expense of any resources used to provide the requested information, and all information submitted in response to this request shall become the property of the Government and will not be returned to the submitter. Please submit your responses by 29 September 2011. Responses may be sent via email to andrew.meloni@us.army.mil or by regular mail to US Army RDECOM, Natick Soldier RD&E Center, ATTN: RDNS-WPA-T (Meloni), 15 Kansas Street, Natick, MA, 01760-5017.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/5e5766baff6f160ebd1c32087f15b7aa)
- Place of Performance
- Address: RDECOM Warfighter Protection & Aerial Delivery Directorate ATTN: RDNS-WPA, Building 3, Kansas Street Natick MA
- Zip Code: 01760-5017
- Zip Code: 01760-5017
- Record
- SN02555168-W 20110901/110830235605-5e5766baff6f160ebd1c32087f15b7aa (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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