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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

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Grantee Details

PI Name Sort descending PI Organization Title Grant Number Program Official
Jang, Mi-Hyeon

Rutgers Biomedical And Health Sciences
United States

Identification of novel biomarkers and therapeutic strategies in chemobrain. 5R01CA293210-02 John Clifford, Ph.D.
Jaslowski, Anthony J

St. Vincent Hospital
United States

Cancer Research of Wisconsin and Northern Michigan (CROWN) Consortium 3UG1CA239769-06S1 Vanessa A. White, M.P.H.
Jaslowski, Anthony J

St. Vincent Hospital
United States

Cancer Research of Wisconsin and Northern Michigan (CROWN) Consortium 3UG1CA239769-06S1 Vanessa A. White, M.P.H.
Ji, Hanlee P

Stanford University
United States

Precision Interception of Gastric Cancer Precursors Through Molecular and Cellular Risk Stratification 5P01CA265772-03 Asad Umar, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Ji, Hanlee P

Stanford University
United States

Single-molecule nanopore-based identification of methylome signatures in cfDNA for early colorectal cancer detection 5U01CA282212-02 Claire Zhu, Ph.D.
Jiang, Feng

Biotarget Dx Llc
United States

Plasma microRNA biomarkers for lung cancer diagnosis 7UH3CA251139-05 Guillermo Marquez, Ph.D.
Jiang, Qing

Purdue University
United States

Anti-cancer effects of tocotrienols and a carboxychromanol in an innovative colon cancer model 5R03CA283236-02 Amit Kumar, Ph.D.
Jim, Heather S.L.

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Ctr & Res Inst
United States

Adaptation and Preliminary Evaluation of Energize-MBC: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Fatigue among Women with Metastatic Breast Cancer 5R34CA289918-02 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Jim, Heather S.L.

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Ctr & Res Inst
United States

Adaptation and Preliminary Evaluation of Energize-MBC: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Fatigue among Women with Metastatic Breast Cancer 5R34CA289918-02 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Jim, Heather S.L.

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Ctr & Res Inst
United States

Adaptation and Preliminary Evaluation of Energize-MBC: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Fatigue among Women with Metastatic Breast Cancer 5R34CA289918-02 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Jim, Heather S.L.

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Ctr & Res Inst
United States

Randomized Placebo Controlled Trial of Bupropion for Cancer Related Fatigue 5R01CA214647-05 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Jim, Heather S.L.

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Ctr & Res Inst
United States

Randomized Placebo Controlled Trial of Bupropion for Cancer Related Fatigue 5R01CA214647-05 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Jobin, Christian

University Of Florida
United States

Interaction between dietary taurine and microbiota sulfur metabolism in the development of colorectal cancer 1R01CA296643-01 Young Kim, Ph.D.
John, Esther M.

Stanford University
United States

Stress, inflammation, and health-related quality of life of long-term breast cancer survivors 1R21CA290430-01 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
John, Esther M.

Stanford University
United States

Stress, inflammation, and health-related quality of life of long-term breast cancer survivors 1R21CA290430-01 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.

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