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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
Salami, Simpa Samuel

University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor
United States

Defining the Biological Arc of Grade Group 1 Prostate Cancer 5R37CA283857-03 Guillermo Marquez, Ph.D.
Salipante, Stephen J

University Of Washington
United States

Efficient, cost-effective, and ultrasensitive sequencing of somatic mutations and methylation 1R33CA302385-01 Nicholas Hodges, Ph.D.
Salkowski, Lonie

University Of Wisconsin-Madison
United States

Defining and Optimizing Critical Interpretation Skills in Screening Mammography to Improve Cancer Detection 5R37CA262110-04 Guillermo Marquez, Ph.D.
Salman, Emad

Florida Assn Of Pediatric Tumor Prog
United States

The Florida Pediatric NCORP: NCI Community Oncology Research Program. 3UG1CA189973-11S1 Vanessa A. White, M.P.H.
Salman, Emad

Florida Assn Of Pediatric Tumor Prog
United States

The Florida Pediatric NCORP: NCI Community Oncology Research Program. 3UG1CA189973-11S1 Vanessa A. White, M.P.H.
Salvemini, Daniela

Saint Louis University
United States

Fingolimod and Ozanimod for the treatment and prevention of chemobrain 5R01CA261979-04 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Salvemini, Daniela

Saint Louis University
United States

Fingolimod and Ozanimod for the treatment and prevention of chemobrain 5R01CA261979-04 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Sanchez, Eduardo Vilar

University Of Tx Md Anderson Can Ctr
United States

iCAN PREVENT: MD Anderson International Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Consortium 2UG1CA242609-07 Donald Johnsey
Sanchez, Eduardo Vilar

University Of Tx Md Anderson Can Ctr
United States

Cancer Immune-Interception for Lynch Syndrome 5R01CA257375-05 Asad Umar, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Sanchez, Eduardo Vilar

University Of Tx Md Anderson Can Ctr
United States

Cancer Immune-Interception in a Spontaneous Non-Human Primate Model of Lynch Syndrome 5R01CA260761-04 Asad Umar, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Sanda, Martin G

Emory University
United States

Prostate Cancer Biomarker and Imaging Validation Alliance: Emory University, University of Alabama Birmingham, and University of Texas Southwestern 5U01CA113913-18 Indu Kohaar, Ph.D., M.Phil., M.Sc.
Sanda, Martin G

Emory University
United States

Prostate Cancer Biomarker and Imaging Validation Alliance: Emory University, University of Alabama Birmingham, and University of Texas Southwestern 5U01CA113913-18 Indu Kohaar, Ph.D., M.Phil., M.Sc.
Sands, Stephen Alan

Sloan-Kettering Inst Can Research
United States

Prospective international phase-III study to improve neurocognitive outcomes in young children with low-risk medulloblastoma (YCMB-LR) 5R01CA283045-02 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Sands, Stephen Alan

Sloan-Kettering Inst Can Research
United States

Prospective international phase-III study to improve neurocognitive outcomes in young children with low-risk medulloblastoma (YCMB-LR) 5R01CA283045-02 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Sands, Stephen Alan

Sloan-Kettering Inst Can Research
United States

Prospective international phase-III study to improve neurocognitive outcomes in young children with low-risk medulloblastoma (YCMB-LR) 5R01CA283045-02 Marjorie Perloff, M.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