NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE, CONTRACTS MANAGEMENT BRANCH, OPRM 5600 FISHERS LANE, RM 10-49 ROCKVILLE MD 20857

A -- NEUROANATOMY AND REGENERATION RELATED TO SPINAL CORD INJURY SOL N01DA-7-9055 DUE 072397 POC Dale S. Weiss, Contracting Officer, 301-443-1301 (phone), 301-443-7595 (fax), dw79f@NIH.GOV E-MAIL: Dale S. Weiss, dw79F@NIH.GOV. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Intramural Research Program(IRP) is soliciting proposals from qualified organizations having in-house capability to study spinal cord neuroanatomy, regeneration, synapse formation, neurotrophic factors, regeneration of white matter, contusion injuries, improvement of functional recovery of high spinal cord lesions and contusion injuries. The research will build on work published by Drs. Cheng, Cao and Olson in Science 96. The project will generate experiments that will demonstrate novel spinal cord repair strategies. The contractor will be required to carry out experiments using multiple (18) fine peripheral nerve graft bridges across spinal cord lesions, that reroute and regenerate nerve fibers from white matter to grey matter; using precisely defined positioning of the nerve grafts and stabilization of the engrafted area with a fibrin-based tissue glue. Research will require access to and use of a high resolution MRI that will allow detailed analysis of structures as small as the rat spinal cord. In addition to generating a further basis for interpretation of the repair strategy, the project will study several new aspects such as whether or not there is an altered conduction across the injured area as well as aspects of specificity and topography of function of regenerated fiber tracts. In addition, chronic spinal cord injury will be studied. The contractor must have experience and ex pertise in spinal cord regeneration, synapse formation, fibrin-based tissue glue, regeneration of white matter and related neurotrophic factors. It is anticipated that one (1) cost reimbursement, completion or fixed price type contract will be awarded for a period of two years. RFP No. N01DA-7-9055 will be available electronically on or about June 23, 1997, and may be accessed through the NIH Gopher and/or the Internet by using the following electronic mail addresses and instruction: 1) NIH Home Page (via the World Wide Web): Access the NIH Home Page by using http://www.nih.gov .Once you are at the NIH Home Page, select "Grants and Contracts"; select "NIH Gopher directory: listed under the "Contracts Page" section. Once at the NIH R&D Gopher, select "RFPs Available"; select "NIDA"; and select "RFP N01DA-7-9055". (URL: gopher://gopher.nih.gov:70/11/res/rd-rfp) 2) NIH Gopher: Point your Gopher client to GOPHER.NIH.GOV Port 70 (you should now be in the NIH Gopher). Select "Grant and Research Information"; select "R&D Request for Proposals (RFP)"; select "RFPs Available"; select "NIDA"; and, select "RFP N01DA-7-9055". Please note that the RFP for this acquisition will be streamlined to include only the Work Statement, deliverable and reporting requirements, special requirements and mandatory qualifications, Technical Evaluation Criteria, and proposal preparation instructions. All information required for the submission of an offer will be contained in the electronic RFP package. Following proposal submission and the initial review process, offerors comprising the competitive range may be requested to provide additional documentation to the Contracting Officer. Response to this RFP will be due on or about July 23, 1997. Any responsible offeror may submit a proposal which will be considered by the Government. This advertisement does not commit the Government to award a contract. Point of Contact: Dale S. Weiss, Contracting Officer Electronic Mail Address: dw79f@nih.gov Telephone: (301) 443-1301 Fax: (301) 443-7595 (0156)

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