The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $949,341 - Tuesday the 8th of January 2013
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  GLENN RESEARCH CENTER
  IGF::OT::IGF AWARD IS FOR FOLLOW-ON WORK FOR SBIR III CONTRACT. THE DNA MEDICINE INSTITUTE (DMI) SHALL DEVELOP THE RHEALTH BIOSENSOR, ITS SAMPLE ACQUISITION PROTOCOL, AND SUPPORTING REAGENTS AS NEEDED TO EVALUATE THE RHEALTH SYSTEM PERFORMANCE AGAINST MEASUREMENTS OF A RECOGNIZED MEDICAL STANDARD. TO DATE, THE PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (PI) HAS DEMONSTRATED FEASIBILITY OF COUNTING WHITE BLOOD CELLS IN THE RHEALTH SYSTEM, AND HAS COMPLETED FINAL REPORT DETAILING WHITE BLOOD CELL LIMITED CLINICAL VALIDATION UNDER PREVIOUS PHASE III. THE REPORT DESCRIBED THE SUCCESSFUL DIRECT COMPARISON OF RHEALTH ASSAY RESULTS AGAINST A RECOGNIZED MEDICAL STANDARD WITH QUANTIFICATION OF SIMILARITY/DIFFERENCE TO THIS GOLD STANDARD. THE GOAL OF THIS CONTRACT WILL BE TO PROVIDE ASSAY DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION FOR A PANEL OF FOUR (4) ANALYTES; 25 OH) VITAMIN-D, N-TELOPEPTIDE (NTX), IFN-?? (INTERFERON GAMMA), AND TNF-?? (TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR ALPHA). THESE ANALYTES ARE UNDERSTOOD TO REQUIRE THE NANOSTRIP ARCHITECTURE. THE VALIDATION TESTING SHOULD BE TO A RECOGNIZED LABORATORY STANDARD (I.E., ELISA, OTHER COMPARABLE ASSAY DETECTION METHODS). FURTHER, THE PI SHALL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP THE MEANS TO BRING THE SAMPLE PREPARATIONS TO THOSE CONSISTENT WITH AN ON-ORBIT CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS FOR ISS, E.G., SIMPLIFYING SAMPLE LOADING FOCUSING ON BUBBLE-FREE MECHANISM REQUIRED FOR REPRODUCIBLE ASSAYS THAT ARE OPERATOR INDEPENDENT AND MINIMIZING SAMPLE PREPARATION STEPS, REFINING THE FLUIDICS MANIFOLD FOR IMPROVED TIMING AND SYNCHRONIZATION OF THE FLUIDIC PROCESSES, AND REDUCING THE DURATION, COMPLEXITY, AND PERFORMING SUCH ASSAYS WITH AVAILABLE SUPPORTING EQUIPMENT ON ISS. FURTHER, THE PI SHALL INVESTIGATE FEASIBILITY OF INCORPORATING A THIOAPTAMER ASSAY INTO THE NANOSTRIP TECHNOLOGY AS DETAILED BELOW IN THE TASK DESCRIPTIONS.

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• $150,000 - Wednesday the 3rd of April 2013
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  THE GOAL OF OUR NANOSCALE TEST STRIPS, OR NANOSTRIPS, IS TO PROVIDE RAPID, LOW-COST, POWERFUL MULTIPLEXED ANALYSES IN A DIMINUTIVE FORM SO THAT WHOLE BODY HEALTH CHECKS CAN BE PERFORMED ON A SINGLE DROP OF BLOOD. THE APPROACH IS CONCEPTUALLY SIMILAR TO PH OR URINALYSIS TEST STRIPS WHICH ALLOW MULTIPLEXED MEASUREMENTS IN A LINEAR FORMAT. THE MAIN DIFFERENCE IS THAT WE ARE PROPOSING TEST STRIPS AT THE NANOSCALE, SHRUNK IN SIZE OVER A BILLION-FOLD IN VOLUME, ALLOWING MULTIPLE SENSING ELEMENTS TO BE INCLUDED IN A TINY AREA. IN PHASE I, WE FABRICATED, TESTED, AND DEMONSTRATED FUNCTIONAL PARATHYROID HORMONE AND VITAMIN D NANOSTRIPS FOR BONE METABOLISM. FURTHERMORE, WE DEVELOPED THROMBIN APTAMER AND IMMUNE IGG ANTIBODY NANOSTRIPS. FOR PHASE II, WE WILL DEVELOP A BREADTH OF NANOSTRIPS DESIGNED TO ADDRESS KEY SPACE-FLIGHT MEDICAL NEEDS. THESE WILL BE FOR ASSESSMENT OF BONE METABOLISM, IMMUNE RESPONSE, CARDIAC STATUS, LIVER METABOLISM, AND LIPID PROFILES. WE PLAN TO ENHANCE OUR TECHNOLOGY CAPABILITIES BY DEVELOPING A RAPID NANOSTRIP ASSAY CAPABILITY, MIX-AND-RUN ASSAY CAPABILITY, IN-HOUSE APTAMER PRODUCTION, ADVANCED LYOPHILIZATION TECHNOLOGY, AND NANOSTRIP ACCELERATED STABILITY TESTS. THE NANOSTRIPS WILL BE READ OUT IN A TIME-OF-FLIGHT FLOW-BASED MANNER UTILIZING OUR RHEALTH SENSOR.

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