Customized Antibody Synthesis, Expression, Purification and Plasmids preparations.

This is a Notice of Intent, not a request for proposal. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to negotiate with other than full and open competition basis with Genscript USA Incorporated, 860 Centennial Ave, Piscataway, NJ 08854.NIH has a need for: Customized Antibody Synthesis, Expression, Purification and Plasmids preparations.The experiments supported by these materials will support LMIV of malaria research. Given these urgent needs and other reasons discussed above, a change in vendor may lead to significant delays to experiments supporting these public health efforts.LMIV is the only owners of Grammomys surdaster (Thicket Rats) in captivity in the United States. These Thicket Rats are a natural host of the malaria species Plasmodium Yoelii, and a unique and important resource for malaria vaccine development for LMIV. However, there are a very small number of commercially available reagents that can be

used to interrogate immune cell subsets in response to vaccination or infection in the Thicket Rat model. Common antibodies used for standard mouse or rat immune cell subsets do not work in Thicket Rats as they are not specific enough. To overcome this hurdle while being able to use our unique Thicket Rat model to the fullest extent possible, LMIV needs to generate Thicket Rat specific monoclonal antibodies that can be used in a variety of laboratory assays, specifically flow cytometry, to label and sort our Thicket Rat immune cell subsets. This order request is for custom designed recombinant antigens to be synthesized, and then specific monoclonal antibodies will be made using Genscript’s hybridoma technology. LMIV is requesting Genscript to do the work for production of these monoclonal antibodies for two reasons. First, the antibodies are needed in a timely manner to advance the mission of the Laboratory of Malaria Immunology and Vaccinology. Second, Genscript’s codon optimization algorithms have proven to work very well for difficult to express antigens such as the one seen in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparium. With Plasmodium falciparium being very difficult to express, other vendors without significant experience with malaria proteins, that are not commonly used in heterologous expression systems, could find creating an expression product to be difficult.Additionally, the major use of these services being provided is to support multiple ongoing mission critical experiments. The impact of changing vendors would lead to variations in final product as well as the loss of integrity of data on experiments that span multiple years. Given these urgent need and other reasons discussed above, a change in vendor may lead to significant delays to experiments supporting these public health efforts. Additional delays are not an acceptable option as the LMIV needs to generate Thicket Rat specific monoclonal antibodies that can be used in a variety of laboratory assays, specifically flow cytometry, to label and sort our Thicket Rat immune cell subsets. Substitution services will NOT be accepted for this project as these services being provided is to support multiple ongoing mission critical experiments.The statutory authority for this sole source requirement is 41 U.S.C.1901 (e) (2) as implemented by FAR 13.106-1 only one responsible source and no other supply of service will satisfy agency requirements. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. All responsible sources that could provide comparable services may submit a capability statement that will be considered by email (subject line to reference NOI-NIAID-2175303) to Diana Rohlman at diana.rohlman@nih.gov, by 4pm eastern standard time, June 20, 2023. All responses received by the closing date of this synopsis will be considered by the Government. A determination not to compete this requirement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government.