Q301--Metabolomics and Lipidomics Pulmonary Study

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Contract Opportunity

This is a SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY. It is neither a solicitation announcement nor a request for proposals or quotes and does not obligate the Government to award a contract. Requests for a solicitation will not receive a response. Responses to this source sought must be in writing. The purpose of this source sought announcement is for market research to make appropriate acquisition decisions and to gain knowledge of potential qualified Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses, Veteran Owned Small Businesses, 8(a), HubZone and other Small Businesses interested and capable of providing the services described below. Documentation of technical expertise must be presented in sufficient detail for the Government to determine that your company possesses the necessary functional area expertise and experience to compete for this acquisition. Responses to this notice shall include the following: (a) company name (b) address (c) point of contact (d) phone, fax, and email (e) DUNS number (f) Cage Code (g) Tax ID Number (h) Type of small business, e.g. Services Disabled Veteran Owned small Business, Veteran-owned small business, 8(a), HUBZone, Women Owned Small Business, Small disadvantaged business, or Small Business HUBZone business and (i) must provide a capability statement that addresses the organizations qualifications and ability to perform as a contractor for the work described below.

The Department of Veteran Affairs, San Diego VA Health Care System located at 3350 La Jolla Village Dr, San Diego, CA 92161 to provide biomolecular services from their custom next-generation mass spectrometry design, as well as storage of samples up until the assays are run, and online data delivery metabolomics and lipidomic pulmonary study.

Important information: The Government is not obligated to, nor will it pay for or reimburse any costs associated with responding to this source sought synopsis request. This notice shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract, nor does it restrict the Government to a particular acquisition approach. The Government will in no way be bound to this information if any solicitation is issued. The VA is mandated by Public Law 109-461 to consider a total set-aside for Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business set aside. However, if response by Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business firms proves inadequate, an alternate set-aside or full and open competition may be determined. No sub-contracting opportunity is anticipated. The North American Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 5541714 (1000 employees).

Notice to potential offerors: All offerors who provide goods or services to the United States Federal Government must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at www.sam.gov and complete Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA). Additionally, all Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses or Veteran Owned Businesses who respond to a solicitation on this project must be registered with the SBA-Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) Registry located at https://dsbs.sba.gov. All interested Offerors should submit information by e-mail to felicia.simpson@va.gov All information submissions to be marked Attn: Felicia Simpson, Contract Specialist and should be received no later than 10:00 AM MST December 5, 2025.

Contract Title.
Metabolomics and Lipidomics Pulmonary Study

Background.
Dr. Crotty Alexander s recently funded VA Merit Award and paired Senior Clinician Scientist Investigator (SCSI) award focus on studying banked samples from human subjects, with the overarching goal of identifying the health effects of vaping e-cigarettes. By looking into the chemical, protein and lipid components of blood and sputum, we can identify potential health effects far before they cause clinical symptoms in our Veterans. All samples have been de-identified and coded, such that no sensitive information will be transferred. Because the company recognizes the importance of the research to be done, they are offering to run these 185 samples at a 24.5% discount. More specifics about the research:
Vaping of nicotine via electronic (e)-cigarettes became popular over the last 10 years and use is higher in Veteran and active-duty military populations. The safety of this behavior is unclear despite some unsubstantiated assurances that vaping might be safer than conventional smoking. Establishing the toxicity of conventional tobacco took several decades of epidemiological studies. However, with the rates of vaping increasing rapidly, experimental evidence is desperately needed to guide public policy before definitive epidemiological data are available. As was the case with tobacco, public health has been threatened by e-cigarette use trends, with minority and vulnerable populations, including Veterans, especially targeted by marketing strategies. We are concerned with the potential toxicity of e-cigarettes on these vulnerable populations, given the absence of reassuring data.
By leveraging samples, we recently collected from 18 35-year-old e-cigarette vapers of nicotine, vapers with TH2-high asthma, non-smoking non-vaping (NSNV) controls, and NSNV subjects with TH2-high asthma, the research proposed will obtain cross-sectional data on vaping induced changes in inflammation and immune cell phenotype and function in the setting of TH2-high asthma. These data will help us better understand the risks of e-cigarette use for Veterans with asthma. Specifically, we propose conduct deep cellular and molecular studies of inflammatory and immune changes associated with e-cigarette use. Data from our 2016-2017 e-cigarette cohort found immunomodulation with primarily down-regulation of inflammatory pathways in the airways of 2nd-3rd gen nicotine e-cigarette users, with concomitant increased systemic inflammation. We will identify inflammatory pathways modulated by e-cigarette use, with a sub-analysis to assess gender and flavor effects. We will take our findings from the human subject samples back to the bench to determine which chemicals within e-cigarette aerosols (vapor) are driving the molecular changes.
Scope.
We hypothesize that small molecules and lipids related to inflammation within human saliva, sputum, plasma, urine, and circulating immune cells have the potential to be biomarkers of e-cigarette vaping, and markers of inflammation and cell damage that herald downstream health effects.
We will send 185 samples from human subjects (including plasma) to the metabolomics company, who will conduct next-generation metabolomics by mass spectrometry to identify 15-25,000 small molecule biomarkers (metabolites and lipids) within each sample. The company will then send all data to the investigators.
Specific Tasks.
The contractor shall provide biomolecular services from their custom next-generation mass spectrometry design, as well as storage of samples up until the assays are run, and online data delivery. In detail, the company will:
1. Conduct next-generation metabolomics by mass spectrometry to identify 15-25,000 small molecule biomarkers (metabolites and lipids) within each sample.
2. Send all raw data Raw mass spectral data files to Dr. Crotty Alexander at the VA
3. Send a processed dataset (CSV file) containing extracted mass spectrometry features
4. Conduct metabolite identification of known small molecule metabolites and lipids in the samples using the vendor s standards library and computational database.
The quote covers all supplies, reagents, labor, and consumable lab materials.
Performance Monitoring.
Principal Investigator will be checking quality of performance when service is used.

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