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Discovery and Development of Natural Products for Cancer Interception and Prevention (DDNP-CIP)

There are ~500,000 semi-purified products of plants, marine life, and microbes in the NCI Natural Product Collection

The Discovery and Development of Natural Products for Cancer Interception and Prevention Program (DDNP-CIP) supports the discovery and development of new natural products that are safe, non-toxic, and useful for cancer interception and prevention. Given the wide range of chemical diversity found in natural products around the world, they present an opportunity to discover biologically active compounds with unique structures and mechanisms of action. However, only a small percentage of them have been screened and evaluated for their potential in cancer prevention. NCI has one of the most diverse libraries of semi-purified natural product fractions in the world that are readily available to the research community for further testing. DDNP-CIP investigators are using new techniques, including high-throughput screening strategies, to screen natural products for activity in pathways to intercept and prevent cancer.

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About DDNP-CIP

The Discovery and Development of Natural Products for Cancer Interception and Prevention (DDNP-CIP) Program’s overall research objectives are to:

  • Identify and select clinically relevant cancer interception and prevention pathways and targets in natural products;
  • Develop robust high-throughput screening strategies and specific cell-based and/or cell-free assays to screen non-toxic natural agents;
  • Screen, purify, and identify the structure of active natural compounds;
  • Develop models that could be used to guide the selection of preventive agents active in assays.

The flow chart below shows the steps for discovery and development of natural products for cancer prevention The National Cancer Institute supports the process across divisions and the NCI Program for Natural Product Discovery (NPNPD). In addition, the National Institutes of Health National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) supports this process.

Flow chart of the DDNP-CIP
The research may use a design along the continuum (such as clinically relevant cancer interception target selection and verification in both preclinical in vivo and clinical samples, assay development or validation, prototype high-throughput screening (HTS), pilot and full scale HTS using NCI libraries with greater than 500,000 semi-purified NP samples or investigator owned libraries, optimization of drug leads (through medicinal chemistry efforts), purification and structural elucidation of active natural compounds, secondary screening, in vivo testing, and dose optimization) with the NCI DCP, DCTD or NCATS support. Once promising interventions with in vivo efficacies and lack of toxicities are identified, these natural agents can enter the NCI PREVENT pipeline for advanced preclinical development followed by moving to clinical trials through CP-CTNet program.


Investigators in the Discovery and Development of Natural Products for Cancer Interception and Prevention take advantage of NCI’s large library of “ready-to-screen,” pre-fractionated natural products to speed up bioassay-directed isolation and characterization of potential prevention agents. New natural agents discovered will move to the existing advanced preclinical development program, PREVENT, for further development towards early phase cancer prevention clinical trials by the Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network.

Funding Opportunity

No matching Funding Opportunities were found.

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Grantee Details

PI Name Sort descending PI Organization Title Grant Number Program Official
Baghdadi, Tareq Al

Saint Joseph Mercy Health System
United States

Michigan Cancer Research Consortium NCORP 3UG1CA189971-11S1 Vanessa A. White, M.P.H.
Balaj, Leonora

Massachusetts General Hospital
United States

Standardized Molecular Analyses of Glioma EVs 5R01CA237500-05 Matthew Young, Ph.D.
Balskus, Emily Patricia

Harvard University
United States

PROSPECT: Pathways, Risk factors, and mOleculeS to Prevent Early-onset Colorectal Tumors 3OT2CA297577-01S1 Asad Umar, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Balu, Mihaela

University Of California-Irvine
United States

Fast, large area, multiphoton exoscope (FLAME) for improving early detection of melanoma 4R01CA259019-04 Guillermo Marquez, Ph.D.
Banerjee, Imon

Mayo Clinic Arizona
United States

Multimodal AI Fusion Model for Early Detection for Pancreatic Cancer 5R01CA289249-02 Nicholas Hodges, Ph.D.
Bao, Ting

Dana-Farber Cancer Inst
United States

Yoga for Chemotherapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment (YCT) Trial 5R01CA251470-06 Goli Samimi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Bao, Ting

Dana-Farber Cancer Inst
United States

Yoga for Chemotherapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment (YCT) Trial 5R01CA251470-06 Goli Samimi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Bao, Ting

Dana-Farber Cancer Inst
United States

Acupuncture for Chemothrapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment (ACT) Trial 5R37CA248563-05 Asad Umar, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Bao, Ting

Dana-Farber Cancer Inst
United States

Acupuncture for Chemothrapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment (ACT) Trial 5R37CA248563-05 Asad Umar, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Bao, Ting

Dana-Farber Cancer Inst
United States

Acupuncture for Chemothrapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment (ACT) Trial 5R37CA248563-05 Asad Umar, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Bao, Ting

Dana-Farber Cancer Inst
United States

Yoga for Chemotherapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment (YCT) Trial 5R01CA251470-06 Goli Samimi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Barber, Glen N.

Ohio State University
United States

Development of A HTLV-1 Vaccine 7R01CA252049-05 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Barroilhet, Lisa M

University Of Wisconsin-Madison
United States

Repurposing Atovaquone for Preventing Ovarian Cancer: An Example of Successful Inhibition of Oxidative Phosphorylation 5R01CA238423-05 Goli Samimi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Barroilhet, Lisa M

University Of Wisconsin-Madison
United States

The MW Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network 5UG1CA242635-05 Donald Johnsey
Bartolini, Francesca

Columbia University Health Sciences
United States

Investigating the Pathogenic Role of Tubulin Post-translational Modifications in CIPN 5R01CA279401-02 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.

A pre-application webinar was held on May 5, 2023, and recorded. The next application due date is June 13, 2025. 

Program Contact(s)

Altaf Mohammed, Ph.D. 
Email: altaf.mohammed@nih.gov