SPECIAL NOTICE
A -- INTERfering and Co-Evolving Prevention and Therapy (INTERCEPT) Proposers Day
- Notice Date
- 4/7/2016
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541711
— Research and Development in Biotechnology
- Contracting Office
- Other Defense Agencies, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Contracts Management Office, 675 North Randolph Street, Arlington, Virginia, 22203-2114, United States
- ZIP Code
- 22203-2114
- Solicitation Number
- DARPA-SN-16-28
- Archive Date
- 4/29/2016
- Point of Contact
- Dr. Jim Gimlett,
- E-Mail Address
-
DARPA-SN-16-28@darpa.mil
(DARPA-SN-16-28@darpa.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The Biological Technologies Office (BTO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is hosting a Proposers Day for the potential proposer community in advance of a planned Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the INTERfering and Co-Evolving Prevention and Therapy (INTERCEPT) Program. The Proposers Day will be held on Friday, April 29, 2016, in Arlington, VA. A webcast of the meeting will be broadcast for those who would like to participate remotely. Advance registration is required for both the physical meeting and the webcast. Registrants will have the opportunity to participate in an oral presentation that can be scheduled upon registration. The goals of the Proposers Day are: 1. To introduce the scientific community (industry, academia, and government) to the INTERCEPT program vision and goals; 2. To explain the general mechanics of a DARPA program and the specific objectives and milestones of this program; and 3. To encourage and promote teaming arrangements among organizations with the expertise, research facilities, and capabilities needed to execute research and development responsive to INTERCEPT program goals. In order to facilitate team building among the participants, the Proposers Day will include brief oral presentations by selected participants (3 mins duration each), teaming discussion sessions, question-and-answer sessions, and private sidebar meetings with potential proposer teams. Participant presentations and sidebar meetings must be scheduled via the registration website. To maximize the pool of innovative proposal concepts, DARPA strongly encourages participation in these events and subsequent solicitations by small businesses, academic and research institutions, and first-time government contractors. Attendance is not a requirement for submission or selection. Information relayed during the Proposers Day will be made available on the BTO section of the DARPA Opportunities page: http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities Program Objective and Structure: Current preventive and therapeutic platforms including vaccines and anti-virals are designed to treat viral pathogens in their circulating state or at the time of diagnosis. However, pathogens mutate and evolve over time, becoming resistant to static therapies. The goal of the INTERCEPT program is to explore and develop a new therapeutic platform to outpace fast-evolving viral pathogens, based upon virus-based therapeutic particles that interfere with viral infection and co-evolve with viral targets. The INTERCEPT program builds upon previously reported naturally occurring Defective Interfering Particles (DIPs), viral-derived particles with partially deleted genomes that lack essential genes for replication enzymes and capsid proteins. DIPs rely on the wildtype parent virus to replicate and mobilize, and consume critical wildtype resources, thus interfering with the infection process. Performers within the INTERCEPT program will aim to engineer and optimize therapeutic versions of DIPs as Therapeutic Interfering Particles (TIPs) to stoichiometrically outcompete the parent virus for viral proteins, in the process reducing viral load within a patient and attenuating viral transmission. Preliminary modeling studies suggest that the viral chassis of TIPs will enable them to co-evolve and keep pace with the viral pathogen as it mutates, thereby addressing the ongoing challenges of viral escape and therapeutic obsolescence. The INTERCEPT program aims to explore and demonstrate the potential of TIPs for use as therapeutic and preventive platforms for the long-term control, at the individual and the population levels, of a broad range of fast-evolving viruses. To explore the TIP concept as a therapeutic platform that can keep pace with fast-evolving pathogens, INTERCEPT will address four fundamental questions: 1. Safety & Efficacy: Can TIPs be built that are safe and out-compete the pathogen? 2. Co-evolution capability: Can TIPs safely evolve and keep pace with evolving pathogens to control an infection long-term? 3. Efficacy across populations: Can TIPs provide population-wide protection and infectious disease control? 4. Generalizability: Can the TIP concept be extended across multiple viruses and for multiple acute and chronic infectious diseases? Successful teams will address and integrate these program components to demonstrate proof-of-principle of a therapeutic and/or a preventive approach relevant to countering rapidly-evolving pathogens. DARPA anticipates that INTERCEPT will encompass a four-year program organized in two phases of 2 years duration each. During the Phase 1 period, performer teams will establish proof of concept of TIPs safety, broad range efficacy, and initial TIP-pathogen co-evolution using in vitro and in vivo models of viral infection, as well as mathematical models of TIP-pathogen-host dynamics. Phase 2 period will focus on the validation of long-term TIP safety and efficacy, long-term co-evolution studies, and TIP co-transmission dynamics for population-scale disease control. DARPA strongly encourages teaming to ensure the expertise and capabilities necessary to meet program goals. Interested parties are invited to submit a one-page profile that includes the following: Contact information, including name, organization, email, telephone number, mailing address, and website Brief description of proposer's technical competencies and relevant facilities Desired technical competencies and facilities needed from other potential team performers, if applicable. All profiles must be emailed to DARPA-SN-16-28@darpa.mil no later than 5:00 PM EDT on Friday, April 22, 2016. Following the deadline, a consolidated list of profiles will be sent via email to the proposers who submitted a valid profile. Specific content, communications, networking, and team formation are the sole responsibility of the participants. Neither DARPA nor the Defense Department (DoD) endorses the information and organizations contained in the consolidated teaming profile document, nor does DARPA or DoD exercise any responsibility for improper dissemination of the teaming profiles. REGISTRATION INFORMATION PLEASE NOTE: Registration closes on Friday, April 22, 2016, at 5:00 PM EDT or when capacity is reached, whichever comes first. Advance registration is required for attending the Proposers Day via the physical meeting and for viewing the webcast. There will be no registration fee for the Proposers Day and no on-site registration. Interested parties are encouraged to coordinate attendance internally within their organizations prior to registration. Attendance is limited to no more than two representatives per division/department, with a maximum of five attendees from any one organization. Due to space limitations of the conference facility, physical attendance will be limited to the first 100 registrants. Remote participation via webcast is limited to 500 participants. An online registration form and various other meeting details can be found at the registration website, http://www.sa-meetings.com/InterceptApril2016. ORAL PRESENTATIONS Attendees may be afforded the opportunity to give a brief (3 mins) oral presentation outlining their interests and capabilities. The purpose of these presentations is to facilitate teaming discussions among the attendees. Oral presentations will be restricted to two slides per presenter, which must be submitted to DARPA-SN-16-28@darpa.mil no later than 5:00 PM EDT on Monday, April 25, 2016. Upon registering, attendees may indicate whether they would like to give an oral presentation. Due to limited availability, DARPA does not guarantee that these requests will be fulfilled. TEAMING DISCUSSION SESSIONS These Sessions are intended to facilitate interaction and team building among the participants. Registrants will have the opportunity to discuss areas of interests and capabilities to facilitate communications, interactions, and collaboration discussions. Participants are encouraged to use slides, digital posters or other, in their personal equipment (laptops, tablets) to facilitate these discussions. All attendees are required to present government-issued photo identification upon entry to the event. Non-US citizens are required to submit a DARPA Form 60 (U.S. Permanent Resident and Foreign National Visit Request) no later than 5:00 PM EDT on Friday April 22, 2016. This form and submission instructions will be provided in the registration confirmation email. Further administrative questions should be addressed to DARPA-SN-16-28@darpa.mil. Please refer to the INTERCEPT Proposers Day (DARPA-SN-16-28) in all correspondence. This announcement is not a request for proposals; any sent will be disregarded. Technical Point of Contact: Dr. Jim Gimlett, Program Manager, DARPA/DSO; Email: DARPA-SN-16-28@darpa.mil Note, all times listed in this announcement and on the registration website are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). This announcement is issued solely for information and potential new program planning purposes; the SN does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals or proposal abstracts. DARPA will not provide reimbursement for costs incurred to participate in the Proposers Day.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/DARPA/CMO/DARPA-SN-16-28/listing.html)
- Record
- SN04077349-W 20160409/160407235401-0d6bded97ae0da663aecbed2c91449f5 (fbodaily.com)
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