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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
Kanarek, Naama

Boston Children'S Hospital
United States

Mechanistic Study of Methotrexate-Induced Oxidative Distress in Neurons and the CSF 5R01CA282477-02 John Clifford, Ph.D.
Kanarek, Naama

Boston Children'S Hospital
United States

Mechanistic Study of Methotrexate-Induced Oxidative Distress in Neurons and the CSF 5R01CA282477-02 John Clifford, Ph.D.
Kanetsky, Peter A

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Ctr & Res Inst
United States

A hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial to integrate precision skin cancer risk feedback in federally qualified health centers 5R01CA291735-02 Claire Zhu, Ph.D.
Kang, Dongkyun

University Of Arizona
United States

Non-invasive, quantitative microscopic biomarkers for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy 1R01CA301271-01 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Kang, Dongkyun

University Of Arizona
United States

Non-invasive, quantitative microscopic biomarkers for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy 1R01CA301271-01 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Kanwal, Fasiha

Baylor College Of Medicine
United States

Risk Stratification for and Early Detection of Liver Cancer 5U01CA230997-08 Sidney Fu, M.D.
Kassie, Fekadu

University Of Minnesota
United States

Targeting tumor cell mitochondria for the prevention and treatment of lung cancer 1R01CA285608-01A1
Kelleher, Sarah

Duke University
United States

Randomized Controlled Trial of a Hybrid-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Symptom Management and Activity Coaching Intervention for Stem Cell Transplant Patients 5R01CA291888-02 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Kelleher, Sarah

Duke University
United States

Randomized Controlled Trial of a Hybrid-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Symptom Management and Activity Coaching Intervention for Stem Cell Transplant Patients 5R01CA291888-02 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Kelleher, Sarah

Duke University
United States

Randomized Controlled Trial of a Hybrid-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Symptom Management and Activity Coaching Intervention for Stem Cell Transplant Patients 5R01CA291888-02 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Kelleher, Sarah

Duke University
United States

Initial Testing of a Mobile App Pain Coping Intervention for Outpatient Oncology Settings 5R21CA273832-02 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Kelleher, Sarah

Duke University
United States

Initial Testing of a Mobile App Pain Coping Intervention for Outpatient Oncology Settings 5R21CA273832-02 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Khan, Seema Ahsan

Northwestern University At Chicago
United States

Northwestern Cancer Prevention Consortium 2UG1CA242643-07 Donald Johnsey
Khan, Seema Ahsan

Northwestern University At Chicago
United States

Determinants of transdermal drug delivery to the normal and the radiated breast 5R01CA235647-05 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Khasabov, Sergey G

University Of Minnesota
United States

Treatment of cancer pain by lipid mediator Resolvin D1: role of Prostaglandin and Endocannabinoid signaling 5R01CA263777-05 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