National Institute of Mental Health, Contracts Management Branch, 6001 Exective Blvd., MSC 9603, Rm. 6S-6107, Bethesda, MD 20892-9603

A -- NIMH NEUROPATHOLOGY PROJECT SOL NIMH-00-IR-0003 DUE 060600 POC Bruce E. Anderson, Contracting Officer; (301)443-2234 or (301) 443-2696 WEB: Request for Proposal "NIMH Neuropathology Project", http://www.nimh.nih.gov. E-MAIL: Click here to contact the Contracting Officer via, ba9i@nih.gov. The National Institute of Mental Health proposes to issue solicitation No. NIMH-00-IR-0003 entitled "NIMH Neuropathology Project" as a 100% full and open competitive procedure under SIC Code 8733. The NIMH plans to award one or more cost-reimbursement contracts, each with a two-year base period and eight (8) one-year options, on or about August 25, 2000. The goal of the contract is to provide the Clinical Brain Disorders Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, with sources of human brain tissues in support of their research mission. It is the specific objective of Government to collect human brain specimens that may be of interest to the NIMH (e.g., those with a reasonable suspicion of a history of mental or neurological illness, with an emphasis on schizophrenic brain specimens) through donations from decedents, through State Medical Examiner's Offices. It is specifically desired to obtain a minimum of 30 brains per awarded site, per year (30 cases per year minimum is a combination of mentally ill subjects and normal subjects, taken together for a total of 30/year). Where possible, selected cases should be of varied race, ethnicity, gender, and age. The Contractor will extract and examine the brain using an NIMH developed protocol, and prepare a report on the macroscopic pathological findings on each case using the format of the Medical Examiner's Office. The material will be transported to the NIMH where the Neuropathology Section of the CBDB, NIMH will provide the Medical Examiner's Office with a written neuropathological report of the microscopic analyses from each case. Specifically, the contractor shall: 1) identify/recommend cases for donation to the NIMH, NIH; the CBDB staff will contact the next of kin as designated by the Medical Examiners' Office, and attempt to obtain telephone consent for the donation of brain and skull contents (including dura, pituitary, pineal, and upper cervical spinal cord), blood, and hair samples to the NIMH. In addition, they will solicit the release of medical records where indicated; 2) the Contractor's pathologist will perform the extraction and examination process based on an NIMH-developed protocol; 3) transfer the samples and macroscopic report to the NIMH; the NIMH will generally retrieve the brain and blood samples on a daily basis from Contractors located in the Washington, D.C. vicinity. Where this is not practicable for Contractor's located outside of the local area, specimens will be shipped by the Contractor to the NIMH no later than seven (7) calendar days from extraction. Specimens for pickup/shipping shall be properly prepared/packaged in accordance with all Federal, State and local regulations; 4) forward relevant case information such as police and autopsy reports in order to allow optimal characterization of the specimen. Request for Proposal (RFP) No. NIMH-00-IR-0003 will be available on or about April 5, 2000 and the receipt date for proposals will be on or about June 6, 2000. The RFP may be accessed through the NIMH Home Page by using the following instructions: access the home page at http://www.nimh.nih.gov, select "Grants and Contracts", select "Contracts", select "NIMH Requests for Proposals (RFP)" and lastly select "NIMH-00-IR-0003". Please note that the RFP for this requirement will include the Statement of Work, Deliverables and Reporting Requirements, the Technical Evaluation Criteria, and proposal preparation instructions. All information required for the submission of an offer will be contained in the electronic RFP package. Following proposal submission and the initial review process, offerors included in the competitive range will be requested to provide additional documentation to the Contracting Officer. All responsible sources may submit a proposal that will be considered by the NIMH. This advertisement does not commit the government to award a contract. Posted 03/16/00 (W-SN435225). (0076)

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