SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- Pediatric Functional Neuroimaging Research Network
- Notice Date
- 12/10/2008
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Contracts Management Branch, 6100 Executive Blvd., Suite 7A07, MSC7510, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892-7510
- ZIP Code
- 20892-7510
- Solicitation Number
- SS-NICHD-2009-20
- Point of Contact
- Megan Gnall,, Phone: 301-435-6924, Elizabeth J. Osinski,, Phone: 301-435-6947
- E-Mail Address
-
gnallm@mail.nih.gov, eo43m@nih.gov
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- This announcement is not a Request for Proposals (RFP) and does not commit the Government to award a contract now or in the future. No solicitation is available at this time. The purpose of this synopsis is to identify small business organizations with requisite qualifications to provide the services stated herein. BASED ON CAPABILITY STATEMENTS RECEIVED IN RESPONSE TO THIS SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT, THIS ACQUISITION MAY BE SOLICITED AS A 100% SMALL BUSINESS SET-ASIDE. ALL SMALL BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS (SB, SDB, WOSB, HUBZONE, VOSB, AND SDVOSB) ARE ENCOURAGED TO RESPOND TO THIS NOTICE. THE NAICS CODE IS 541710 WITH A SIZE STANDARD OF 500 EMPLOYEES OR LESS. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is interested in identifying Small Business organizations with requisite qualifications to conduct a study of brain-behavior function in typically developing children from 5 to 18 years of age. It is expected that approximately 100-200 participants will be successfully scanned and developmentally assessed and that there will be a longitudinal component in the study design. The result of the study will be a publicly available database that can be easily queried and to which additional studies can append relevant data. The mission of the Child Development and Behavior Branch (CDBB), within the Center for Research for Mothers and Children (CRMC), NICHD, is to develop scientific initiatives relevant to the psychobiological, cognitive, language, and behavioral development of children, adolescents, and young adults. One of the CDBB areas of emphasis is to support research in human brain development and the associated development of technology to facilitate neuroimaging of pediatric populations. This announcement is a solicitation to develop a database of normative brain-behavior function in children from 5 to 18 years of age through the use of Blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) fMRI. This database will focus on a limited number of primary behavioral domains associated with major brain regions or pathways relevant to normal brain development in children. The specific developmental domain(s) will be proposed by the Offerer. The database will be made freely available to the public for research purposes. A second, optional objective is to conduct basic perfusion studies in the child sample in order to establish the normal variation in brain perfusion among typically developing adolescents. This objective requires the development of studies using arterial spin labeling (ASL) for whole brain with a subsample of the primary sample. In addition, ASL is important for establishing the validity of BOLD fMRI data since such data is dependent upon brain perfusion. Such studies will allow comparisons of data generated by the two complementary methods of BOLD and ASL. The contractor will be required to subcontract to the NIH Biomedical Imaging Research Network (BIRN) in order to use the BIRN infrastructure, software development and data repository for maintaining all data associated with the project. Information about the NIH BIRN is available at http://www.nbirn.net/index_ie6.shtm. Background There are, at present, a large number of techniques that could be considered “functional brain imaging.” For the purpose of this initiative, functional neuroimaging will refer primarily to fMRI. As a neuroimaging technique, fMRI is particularly useful because it is noninvasive (no injections or inhalations needed) and does not require subjects to be exposed to ionizing radiation. Thus, subjects (including children) can be scanned repeatedly, facilitating longitudinal, developmental, and drug studies. The same subject can be scanned on different occasions, using many different tasks, which allows researchers to probe different brain structures and networks. In a relatively short time, adult fMRI research has grown rapidly and made important contributions in understanding cognition and neurobehavioral disorders. In contrast, the functional neuroimaging research involving children and adolescents is quite small and limited. In a recent review of PubMed articles published in the past five years, 210 functional neuroimaging articles involving children were identified. Of these articles, 92% involved adolescents 18 years or older and 98% involved sample sizes less than 15 per group. The control groups in these studies are often matched to the target group and therefore not a representative sample of typical development. These factors increase the likelihood of both type I and II errors and make it impossible to generalize findings. Larger-scale studies are needed in order to make more reliable interpretations of pediatric fMRI data. Pediatric functional neuroimaging research has several major needs. One is to create a database of normal brain activation in a large sample of typically developing children and adolescents. Such a database can be used to investigate normal brain-behavior development as well as provide comparison data for pediatric clinical populations. As part of creating such a database, gold-standards for fMRI scanning protocols and new analytic methods need to be developed. Another need is a standardized approach to investigating brain-behavior questions. This could be best accomplished by concentrating on one or two developmental domains that could be used as a model for investigations in other developmental domains. Examples of possible developmental domains include motor development, memory, perception, language, behavior regulation, attention/cognitive self-regulation, and decision making. A further need is brain perfusion studies to compile brain perfusion data by age, a major gap in the pediatric functional neuroimaging field. To be deemed capable, a small business must demonstrate: 1.A record of having access to and proper use of a state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging machine. 2.Proven capacity for successful functional neuroimaging of typically developing, non-sedated children from ages of infancy through 21 years of age. 3.Professional personnel with proven experience in preparing unsedated children for successful functional neuroimaging sessions. 4.Technical expertise and experience in the development and use of software for analysis of neuroimaging data from pediatric populations. 5.Experience and clinical expertise sufficient to provide developmentally appropriate medical, cognitive, behavioral and other developmental assessments for a pediatric population. 6.Proven expertise and proficiency in establishing and monitoring on an on-going basis the standardized administration of medical, cognitive, behavioral and other developmental assessments required by this project. 7.Research experience and expertise sufficient to identify or develop neurocognitive tasks appropriate for functional neuroimaging of pediatric populations. 8.The ability to provide medical supervision during neuroimaging of children and adequate medical review of neuroimaging data for any incidental findings. 9.Technical expertise and capacity for establishing a data pipeline utilizing the BIRN infrastructure. 10.Technical expertise and proficiency for developing efficient data quality control procedures for neuroimaging and other data required by this project. 11.Technical expertise and capacity for developing a user-friendly, queryable database compatible with BIRN infrastructure requirements. 12.Ability to provide NICHD with access to the queryable database through the BIRN infrastructure on an on-going basis as data are pipelined through the BIRN. 13.Ability to provide NICHD with a usable copy of the raw data and the database in the manner deemed most appropriate given the technology available at the end of the project. Interested SMALL BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS that believe they possess the capabilities necessary to undertake this project should submit one electronic copy to megan.gnall@nih.gov and two (2) hard copies of their capability statement, addressing the areas above. Any proprietary information should be so marked. Written capability statements should be received by the Contracting Officer by no later than 4:00 PM local time on December 29, 2008. Capability statements must identify the small business status of the organization. NO COLLECT CALLS WILL BE ACCEPTED. See numbered NOTE 25. Inquiries: Megan Gnall, Contract Specialist, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 6100 Executive Boulevard, Suite 7A07, MSC 7510, Bethesda, MD 20892-7510. For Express courier service, use Rockville, MD and ZIP CODE 20852 Telephone 301-435-6924 E-mail megan.gnall@nih.gov
- Web Link
-
FedBizOpps Complete View
(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=95ffe345fa91fa105f9886502570f108&tab=core&_cview=1)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Bethesda, Maryland, 20892-7510, United States
- Zip Code: 20892-7510
- Record
- SN01716741-W 20081212/081210220527-95ffe345fa91fa105f9886502570f108 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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