IMMUNE EPITOPE DATABASE AND ANALYSIS PROGRAM

Presolicitation Notice Information

Introduction

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) supports research related to the basic understanding of microbiology and immunology leading to the development of vaccines, therapeutics, and medical diagnostics for the prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of infectious and immune-mediated diseases. The NIAID, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplanation  has a requirement for the continued enhancement and support for the Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resouce (IEDB).

Description

The main goal of this solicitation is to continue support of the IEDB, which provides the research community an easy resource for searching experimental data characterizing antibody and T-cell epitopes studied in humans, non-human primates, and other animal species, involved in infectious disease, allergy, autoimmunity, and transplant, and tools to assist in the prediction and analysis of B-cell and T-cell epitopes. No changes are anticipated to the scope of work from the previous solicitation in terms of the types of immune epitopes to be included in the IEDB. In addition, since this solicitation is a re-competition of an existing public resource, there is no requirement to develop the IEDB and operating system de novo. Offerors can access the specifications for the current IEDB operating system at: http://help.iedb.org/hc/en-us/articles/114094150691-IEDB-System-Architecture-and-Design. Subsequent Contractors are expected to use/improve upon the existing IEDB system. Funding under the prior solicitation is NOT required for submission to this current solicitation

This initiative will 1) maintain and further enhance a central web-based source of information on T cell epitopes and linear and conformational antibody/B cell epitopes (e.g., carbohydrates, lipids, and modified peptides) through curation of existing PubMed literature and direct submissions by the broader research community; 2) maintain and further enhance a central web-based source of data on ligand binding to MHC class I, class II, non-classical, and MHC-related molecules, including ligands shown experimentally not to bind to any of these molecules (i.e., negative binding data); 3) maintain and further enhance a central source of data on BCR and TCR repertoire information associated with T cell and antibody/B cell epitopes located within the IEDB; and 4) foster further development of an Analysis Resource within the IEDB composed of more robust algorithms, mathematical models, and other predictive tools.

Any responsible offeror may submit a proposal which will be considered by the Agency. This RFP will be available electronically on/about 8/2/2024, and may be accessed through SAM.gov. This notice does not commit the Government to award a contract. No collect calls will be accepted. No facsimile transmissions will be accepted.

For this solicitation, the NIAID requires proposals to be submitted online via the NIAID electronic Contract Proposal Submission (eCPS) website. Submission of proposals by facsimile or e-mail is not acceptable.

For directions on using eCPS, go to the website https://ecps.nih.gov and then click on "How to Submit."