A -- A SYSTEMS BIOLOGY APPROACH TO INFECTIOUS DISEASES RESEARCH

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 Microbiology and Infectious Diseases has a requirement for establishing large scale, coordinated Systems Biology Programs that utilize a combination of computational and experimental methodologies to conduct research Projects to analyze, identify, quantify, model and predict the overall dynamics of the network of cellular molecular components of microbial organisms and their interactions with the host cells. Description Each research Project of the Systems Biology Program shall concurrently utilize multiple high-throughput ?-omics? technologies to generate a diversity of experimental data. These experimental data shall be collected and integrated to develop and/or validate computational models of the molecular interaction networks involved in the biological processes under investigation. The resources generated by the System Biology Program shall be made publicly available and easily accessible to the scientific community through public data, software and reagent repositories and through web portals The ultimate goal of the Systems Biology Program is to enhance knowledge of the overall complexity of the biological, biochemical and biophysical molecular processes in microbial organisms and host cells which may lead to the initiation and progression of infectious diseases. Such information should identify novel, unique, as well as common molecular signatures that may represent future targets for intervention and could aid in the identification of emerging pathogens and in the development of antimicrobial drugs, immunotherapies, vaccines and diagnostics for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, thus potentially translating basic research findings into clinical applications. It is anticipated that multiple cost reimbursement, completion type contracts will be awarded for a 5-year period of performance beginning on or about September 15, 2008. It is estimated that the provision of FTEs will be approximately as follows: 10.45 FTEs. Any responsible offeror may submit a proposal which will be considered by the Agency. This BAA will be available electronically on/about August 15, 2007, and may be accessed through FedBizOpps http://www.fedbizopps.gov/. This notice does not commit the Government to award a contract. No collect calls will be accepted. No facsimile transmissions will be accepted. See Government-Wide Numbered Note 26.