Acquisition of Longitudinal Samples from HIV Infected Individuals

THE PURPOSE OF THIS SOURCES SOUGHT SYNOPSIS IS TO DETERMINE AVAILABILITY AND CAPABILITY OF POTENTIAL QUALIFIED BUSINESSES/ORGANIZATIONS. This is NOT a solicitation or request for proposal, proposal abstracts, or quotations. Disclaimer and Important Notes: This notice does not constitute any commitment by or obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response to this notice. The Government will not reimburse for the data provided or will not return any data. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Interested parties must submit a capability statement of qualifications. The Capability Statement of Qualifications shall not exceed 25 single-sided pages of 8 1/2x11 size paper, in font type Times New Roman and font size 12, and shall address how and where (which geographic areas) the services can be provided. CDC's preference is for a single party to provide services for all 3 areas; however, CDC will determine how to solicit proposals based upon responses to this notice. Firms should provide the following: 1) Ability to identify, collect, process, aliquot, store and ship HIV infected blood samples, and ability and availability to follow subjects over a 2-3 year period 2) Company information to include organization name, point(s) of contact(s); email address(es), physical/mailing address, telephone number, business size category (e.g. SBA 8(a)/HUBZone certification data or self-certified SDVOSB, large business, other (non-profit, etc.)), DUNS number. Firms shall submit their information to North American Management contract specialist Sam Jamison by email only at: esw2@cdc.gov CDC is seeking interest in providing the following services: The contractor will identify individuals recently infected with HIV. Preferably the individuals will be identified as HIV nucleic acid positive and HIV antibody negative, but a documented negative HIV test within three months of a positive HIV test is acceptable. Individuals from domestic US sites as well as Africa and Asia are desired. A minimum of 18 individuals from the United States and a minimum of 100 individuals from Africa/Asia are required to be followed for a minimum of two years. Once individuals are identified the contractor will collect whole blood (40mls in EDTA tubes) and dried blood spots (DBS) on 1 standard collection card with 5 spots Blood will be collected on the following schedule: initial enrollment visit, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 15 months, 18 months and 24 months post enrollment. If enrollment permits, an additional 30 -34 month sample is desired. Whole blood samples will be processed and plasma and peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) will be cryoperserved at -70C. Plasma will be labeled and stored in 0.5ml aliquots at -70C. PBL's will be cryoperserved to ensure viability and stored at a minimum concentration of 5x106 cells per vial. DBS will be collected and dried appropriately and stored at -20C with a humidity indicator and desiccant. Previous HIV test history, ARV use and CD4 counts (where possible) will be collected from individuals that are part of the study. Samples and data (without personal identifiers) will be batched and shipped to CDC a minimum of one time per year.