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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
Blanke, Charles D.

Oregon Health & Science University
United States

SWOG NCORP Research Base 3UG1CA189974-11S1 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Boone, Anna

University Of Missouri-Columbia
United States

Pilot testing of metacognitive strategy training to address cancer-related cognitive impairment in breast cancer 1R21CA286404-01A1 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Boone, Anna

University Of Missouri-Columbia
United States

Pilot testing of metacognitive strategy training to address cancer-related cognitive impairment in breast cancer 1R21CA286404-01A1 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Borges, Chad R

Arizona State University-Tempe Campus
United States

Plate reader assays to forensically assess exposure of plasma and serum to thawed conditions 5R21CA269091-03 Indu Kohaar, Ph.D., M.Phil., M.Sc.
Boutros, Paul Christopher

University Of California Los Angeles
United States

Germline Determinants of Prostate Cancer Evolution 5R01CA270108-03 Guillermo Marquez, Ph.D.
Bower, Julienne E

University Of California Los Angeles
United States

Mindfulness Meditation for Younger Breast Cancer Survivors: Testing Digital Interventions in Clinical and Community Settings 5R01CA282416-02 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Bower, Julienne E

University Of California Los Angeles
United States

Mindfulness Meditation for Younger Breast Cancer Survivors: Testing Digital Interventions in Clinical and Community Settings 5R01CA282416-02 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Boyer, Thomas G

University Of Texas Hlth Science Center
United States

Pathological reprogramming of the m6A epitranscriptome in uterine fibroids 5R01HD106285-05 Goli Samimi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Brand, Randall

University Of Pittsburgh At Pittsburgh
United States

Validation of biomarkers for risk prediction and early diagnosis of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma 5U01CA200466-08 Matthew Young, Ph.D.
Brand, Randall

University Of Pittsburgh At Pittsburgh
United States

Validation of biomarkers for risk prediction and early diagnosis of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma 5U01CA200466-08 Matthew Young, Ph.D.
Brinkman, Tara M

St. Jude Children'S Research Hospital
United States

Culturally adapted mobile treatment of chronic pain in adolescent survivors of pediatric bone sarcoma 4R33CA280978-02 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Brinkman, Tara M

St. Jude Children'S Research Hospital
United States

Culturally adapted mobile treatment of chronic pain in adolescent survivors of pediatric bone sarcoma 4R33CA280978-02 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Brown, Austin L

Baylor College Of Medicine
United States

A Systems Epidemiology Approach for Predicting Methotrexate Neurotoxicity in Pediatric Acute Leukemia 5R01CA272981-03 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Brown, Austin L

Baylor College Of Medicine
United States

A Systems Epidemiology Approach for Predicting Methotrexate Neurotoxicity in Pediatric Acute Leukemia 5R01CA272981-03 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Brown, Austin L

Baylor College Of Medicine
United States

A Systems Epidemiology Approach for Predicting Methotrexate Neurotoxicity in Pediatric Acute Leukemia 5R01CA272981-03 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