Gene Synthesis

This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. This Sources Sought is issued for information and planning purposes only as part of USDA ARS market research and does not itself constitute an RFQ. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is searching for firms that can provide gene synthesis to conduct molecular biology research and plasmid biorepository. This Sources Sought is only for the purpose of identifying potential sources as part of USDA ARS market research. The Government does not intend to make an award based on responses to this inquiry. This notice does not constitute a commitment by the Government. Responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. Background The Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit (FADRU) performs research, development, and diagnosis of foreign animal diseases which requires the need to make recombinant plasmids that have specific nucleotide sequences of viral proteins, these proteins have specific mutations that disrupt one or more of the natural function of the protein, and allow for evaluating unknown protein function to determine specific mutations that should be introduced into the virus, in order to make rational next-generation vaccines. Capability Statement All information submitted in response to this announcement is voluntary, and the Government will not pay for information requested nor will it compensate any respondent for any cost incurred in developing information provided to the Government. Small business concerns that believe they possess the capabilities necessary to undertake this work should submit complete documentation of their capabilities to the Contracting Officer. Capability statements shall include the name and telephone of a point of contact having authority and knowledge to discuss their response. The capability statement should include: 1). Verification of your business size 2). Verification of ability to perform requested complexity of the requested gene variant. Complexity is defined and determined based on the following three factors: 1. Secondary structure of requested variant, non-double helix DNA structures are harder to synthesize; 2. Guanine-cytosine (GC) content of the DNA: a higher percentage of GC relative to adenine and thymine (AT) increases complexity and price; 3. Length of new synthesis in the variant - Length separating requested changes when more than one area are variants. 3). Any other information considered relevant to this program. 4). The government requests that no proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in the response. 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 review of the responses received, pre-solicitation and solicitation notices may be published on beta.sam.gov. Original Point of Contact All responses to this Sources Sought Notice must be received by December 29, 2020 by 1:00 pm. EST the specified due date and time in order to be considered. With the subject heading for: 1020751NPIADC Attn. contact@example.gov. Responses will not be returned. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this Inquiry. Do not submit pricing information in response to this Request.