Clinical and Immunological Investigation of Subtypes of Autism

This is a notice of intent, not a request for a proposal. A solicitation document will not be issued and proposals will not be requested. The National Institute on Drug Abuse, Office of Acquisitions-Neuroscience, Station Support/Simplified Acquisition (SS/SA) on behalf of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) intends to negotiate and award a purchase order on a sole source, noncompetitive basis to the New York Sleep Institute, 724 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016 for the analyses of modified polysomnograms obtained from NIMH's cohort of children with autism. The New York Sleep Institute will (1) examine polysomnography for sleep stages I-IV (N1-N3), REM percentage as a fraction of total sleep time, and latencies to particular stages, sleep efficiency and other parameters of the sleep/wake cycle, (2) use standard GRASS telefactor software to calculate sleep staging and (3) read studies in parallel with Program to achieve rater reliability. In accordance with FAR 6.302-1, the work is to be conducted at the New York Sleep Institute, which is well equipped to provide the tools to allow the experts to properly analyze such data. The New York Sleep Institute has an expert, Dr. Alcibiades Rodriguez, which is fellowship trained in neurology, epilepsy and sleep and is a practicing clinician in sleep disorders. Correct analyses of sleep data on children with autism and possibly epileptic abnormalities can be quite challenging and is best done by neurologists who have formal sleep and epilepsy training and extensive experience in reading such studies. Dr. Rodriguez works closely with NYU's epilepsy center and he is familiar with the neurophysiology of persons with autism and developmental disabilities. He has consistently provided NIMH with high quality analyses of their pediatric polysomnograms over the last several years. Dr. Rodriguez is currently in the process of reading the follow-up polysmnographic examinations from NIMH's ongoing, longitudinal study of sleep in three cohorts of young children. These re-reads must be done by the same reader to ensure that there is continuity in testing and consistency in coding across the entire study sample. In addition, analysis of these samples must be done by the appropriate laboratory. Analyses performed via this contract will allow researchers in the Pediatrics & Developmental Neurosciences Branch to accomplish the goals of several clinical research protocols in various stages of development. The period of performance is 12 months with option(s) for up to four additional one-year periods. The acquisition is being conducted under simplified acquisition procedures using FAR 12 and is exempt from the requirements of FAR Part 6, Competition Requirement. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. Interested parties may identify their interest and capabilities in response to this synopsis by submitting a statement of capabilities on or before 10:00 AM E.T., March 30, 2012 to Korriise LaRoche, larochek@mail.nih.gov. All information furnished must be in writing and must contain sufficient detail to allow the NIDA/NIMH to determine if it can meet the above unique specifications described herein. The determination by the Government not to compete the proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely with the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. In order to receive an award from the NIDA, the vendor must be registered in the Online Representations and Certifications Applications (ORCA) at http://orca.bpn.gov. In addition, the vendor must be registered in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) at ww.ccr.gov. Please reference announcement number NOI-2370900 on all correspondence.