CDC www.cdc.gov is developing a bioinformatics pipeline to infer, analyze, and visualize microbial transmission networks for bacterial and viral pathogens. This requires software that would allow joining very large datasets with epidemiological data.
Currently, the agency is only able to achieve the necessary data science, exploration, and visualization techniques on a very small scale by using existing tools. However, to do this requires specialized and novel skills involving the use of highly specialized software and in-house script development by skilled programmers.
This means it is necessary to use a large team of programmers and bioinformaticians to scale CDC’s analytic capacity so that the methods may be applied to any pathogen and extremely large datasets. At this time, using such a team would exceed CDC’s project budget.
To meet CDC’s requirements, the “National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention”, issued a pre-solicitation announcement on www.fbo.gov on July 26, 2016 with a notice indicating that an award for a firm fixed price purchase order made for the project titled “Collaborative Advanced Analytics & Data Sharing (CAADA) Software” would go to Lockheed Martin Services Inc. in Gaithersburg Maryland. The project is being funded by the Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) initiative within CDC.
The pre-solicitation notice describes how the software to be provided must be able to improve outbreak detection but also allow for the development of community-tailored intervention strategies that would provide significant public health benefits at the national, state, and local levels.
This notice appearing on the fbo.gov site is not a solicitation and proposals are not requested. Go to www.fbo.gov to search for Solicitation 2016-Q-65123 titled “Collaborative Advanced Analytics & Data Sharing (CAADS) Software” to read more about the project and requirements.