A -- A -- DEFENSE SCIENCES RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

Notice Date

October 17, 2001

Contracting Office

Other Defense Agencies, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Contracts Management Office, 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, 22203-1714

ZIP Code

22203-1714

Solicitation Number

BAA01-42

Response Due

August 29, 2002

Point of Contact

Eric Eisenstadt, Defense Sciences Office, Phone 703-696-2322, Fax 703-696-3999, Email none

Description

BAA 01-42, ADDENDUM 2, SPECIAL FOCUS AREA: BIOLOGICAL INPUT/OUTPUT SYSTEMS (BIOS). The Defense Sciences Office is interested in new proposals to develop robust technologies for designing DNA-encoded "plug and play" modules that will enable the use of organisms (e.g., plants, microbes, lower eukaryotes) as remote sentinels for reporting the presence of chemical or biological analytes. The ability to design and use organisms as sentinels is limited by the ease with which their molecular components and pathways can be designed and assembled to generate new sensing and reporting capabilities. The BIOS program, therefore, seeks to develop revolutionary technologies that will lead to facile engineering and assembly of functional biological circuits and pathways in living organisms. These new technologies should provide proof-of-principle demonstrations within 3 years that the binding of an analyte to an engineered cytoplasmic or cell surface receptors leads to regulated and specific changes in an organism. These changes might, for instance, be observable by imaging, spectroscopy or DNA analysis. Specific examples of capabilities we wish to demonstrate include, but are not necessarily limited to, showing that the occupancy of designed receptors by specific analytes can regulate: 1) a metabolic pathway that changes the color of the organism (e.g., via changes in pigment chemistry); 2) a signal transduction pathway that generates a novel endpoint (e.g., activation of a fluorescent protein); 3) the synthesis of gene products that are directly observable via spectroscopy; 4) a DNA rearrangement which would be detectable via modern molecular techniques such as PCR or sequencing. Progress in this program will critically depend on the formation of well-managed interdisciplinary efforts drawing on expertise from such areas as structural biology, protein design, genetics, gene regulation, olfaction, membrane biology, chemical engineering, analog circuit design, applied math, network analysis, metabolism, signal transduction, plant biology, toxicology and pathogenesis. Whatever disciplinary composition a team has, its members will need to be sharply and collectively focused on achieving the capability demonstrations outlined above. A very limited number of smaller efforts focused on developing unique approaches to overcoming specific technology challenges in this program will be supported with an eye towards incorporating them into the integrated team efforts by the end of the program. We invite white papers (6 pages or less) in response to this announcement. The white paper should be organized as follows: (1) The idea. Which technologies will you attempt to develop and which sensing capabilities do you plan to demonstrate? (2) The approach. How do you plan to demonstrate the capability(ies) in 3 years? What additional capabilities do you envision will be enabled by your ideas? What are the research challenges and how will they be addressed? What is unique and/or revolutionary about your approach? What quantitative yearly milestones will you achieve to demonstrate how well the project is proceeding? (3) The cost. What is your cost estimate for resources required for the proposed timeline? This section should include a clear description of the human resources needed as well as funding. A management plan that describes how the different disciplines represented on the team will be integrated to generate a capability demonstration within 3 years is critical. (4) A brief discussion of the technical expertise of the principal investigator and other key team members should be provided. While there is no formal date for submission, white papers sent within 30 days of the publication of this Addendum will be evaluated immediately upon receipt. You will be notified within 7 days if a full proposal will be requested. We will respond to the proposals expeditiously, upon scientific review, with the first wave of proposals being reviewed 60 days after publication of this Addendum. White paper submissions may be made by attachment to an e-mail sent to dsobaa01-42@darpa.mil. Word 97 or higher is recommended, but not required. Embedded text and Postscript are also acceptable. The body of the e-mail must include the proposer?s name, mailing address, phone number, and fax number. (If proposers choose not to use e-mail, U.S. mail may be used. White papers will not be accepted by way of facsimile transmissions.) Please put BIOS in the title of the white paper. For general administrative questions, please refer to the original CBD announcement, BAA 01-42, of 4 September 2001.

Web Link

Visit this URL for the latest information about this (http://www.eps.gov/spg/ODA/DARPA/CMO/BAA01-42/listing.html)

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20011019/ASOL003.HTM (D-290 SN5108A3)