HIGH THROUGHPUT DRUG SCREENING FACILITY FOR NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASE

Release Date:  October 19, 2001

NOTICE:  NOT-NS-02-004

RFP Available:  NIH-NINDS-RFP-01-06

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke


The Neurodegeneration Cluster of the National Institute of Neurological 
disorders and Stroke, (NINDS), National Institutes of Health, has a requirement 
to identify a service facility capable of providing two kinds of expertise to 
scientists who have identified a potential assay:  first, adapting the assay for 
high throughput applications and second, testing the assay against large, 
diverse collections of compounds.  Neruodegenerative disease assays will be 
supplied by NINDS investigators as selected by NINDS.  NINDS anticipates using 
the results of the contract to 1) identify  compounds, active in 
neurodegeneration assays, that will be made available to investigators for use 
as research tools and 2) validate assays as useful High Throughput Drug 
Screening (HTS) targets,  to encourage their use in further drug development. 

Specific Requirements:

1. Assay Development: Potential assays for testing at the facility will be 
identified by NINDS. The contractor shall work collaboratively at the facility 
with investigators that have assays to adapt the assays to HTS format. The 
goal of this contract will be to develop and screen assays at the rate of 
approximately three per year. Assays may be cell- or protein-based and will be 
models of neurodegenerative disease.

2. Compound Libraries: The contractor shall identify large, diverse compound 
collections suitable for HTS. These libraries will be in the public domain.  
The contractor shall be responsible for assisting NINDS investigators in 
obtaining additional quantities of active compounds for their use in research. 
For example, this assistance may involve identifying a source for purchase or 
synthesis of particular compounds.

3. Screening:  The contractor shall subject the assays to HTS and analyze the 
results to identify individual compounds that are active in each assay. 
Compounds will be tested over a limited concentration range and data for 
active compounds will be gathered for each concentration tested. 

4. Data Analysis: The contractor shall perform structure-function analysis of 
compounds active in individual assays. The contractor will identify common 
chemical moieties that have activity within a given assay.

5. Quality Control: The contractor shall gather data concerning the consistency 
of the results obtained for individual screens. At a minimum, this will 
include the behavior of active compounds in multiple tests at one 
concentration as well as over a range of concentrations. The behavior of 
necessary controls in individual screens will be documented in screening 
reports.

Monitoring of all contract work and report deliverables, including quality 
control, shall be performed by the Contracting Officer and the Project Officer 
via on-site visits, monthly monitoring of costs, review of quarterly technical 
reports and review of individual screening reports.

Intellectual Property Considerations:

NINDS may collaborate with an outside investigator who has proprietary rights to 
assays that may be adapted for HTS under this contract. The Project Officer will 
identify this “Collaborator” at the time of assignment and in this case the 
following considerations regarding Intellectual Property Rights will 
be applicable.

Under certain conditions the Contractor may be eligible for filing for patent 
protection to protect any inventions that they may have made during the course 
of their contract assignments.  For example, the Contractor may use proprietary 
approaches to significantly modify or enhance an assay to make it suitable for 
HTS.  When the original assay comes from an external collaborator with the 
NINDS, the collaborator’s original discovery needs to be protected.  Therefore, 
the following Intellectual Property Considerations are part of the contract that 
provides that protection and assures that the collaborator does not lose control 
of his original discovery.

Contractor agrees to promptly notify the NINDS and Collaborator in writing of 
any inventions made by the Contractor’s principal investigator or any other 
employees or agents of the Contractor, whether patentable or not, which are 
conceived and/or first actually reduced to practice in the performance of this 
study using Collaborator’s assay.  Contractor agrees to consult with 
Collaborator concerning commercialization of this technology.  Where practicable 
and appropriate, Contractor will permit collaborator to participate in 
commercialization of this technology on terms to be negotiated in good faith by 
Collaborator and Contractor.

Protection of Proprietary Data:

The assays to be developed and screened under this contract are to be regarded 
as proprietary in nature.  Data generated using an assay proprietary to a 
Collaborator will be kept confidential and shared only with the NINDS.  The 
Contractor retains the right to publish and present research results subject to 
the following terms.  Under no circumstances are assays or any information 
associated with these assays to be released or divulged without prior 
notification of the Contracting Officer.  All articles and /or presentations 
that pertain to the work to be performed under this contract shall acknowledge 
the collaborative efforts of all participants, including contributing members of 
the Contractor’s staff, Collaborating investigators, and NINDS staff as 
appropriate.  Prior to publication, articles shall be submitted to the NINDS 
Project Officer for review.  The contractor shall be required to acknowledge the 
support of the NINDS whenever publicizing work performed under the contract in 
any media.

Personnel with established expertise in medicinal chemistry, high throughput 
drug screening, pharmacological structure-function analysis and sufficient 
seniority and breadth of experience in neurodegenerative disease research to 
judge the needs of the research community with regard to drug screens for 
neurodegeneration will be needed to perform this research. 

It is anticipated that one award may be made for a period of five years in 
September 2002. 

Request for Proposals (RFP) NIH-NINDS-01-06 will be AVAILABLE ELECTRONICALLY in 
the COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY.  It will be available at this website 
(http://www.ninds.nih.gov/funding/areas/contracts_management_branch/index.htm) 
15 or more calendar days after the issuance of 
this synopsis.  OFFERORS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ROUTINELY CHECKING THIS WEBSITE FOR 
ANY POSSIBLE SOLICITATION AMENDMENTS THAT MAY BE ISSUED.  NO INDIVIDUAL 
NOTIFICATION OF ANY AMENDMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED.  All responsible sources may 
submit a proposal which shall be considered by the agency.  Refer to numbered 
note 26.

INQUIRIES

Inquiries may be directed to:

Patricia S. Denney, Contracting Officer
Contracts Management Branch
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Neuroscience Center, Room 3287
6001 Executive Boulevard, MSC 9531
Bethesda, MD  20892-9531
Tel:  (301) 496-1813
Fax:  (301) 402-4225
Email:  PD22N@NIH.GOV

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	Office of Extramural Research (OER)			National Institutes of Health (NIH) 9000 Rockville Pike Bethesda, Maryland 20892			Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
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