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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
Chirenje, Zvavahera Mike

University Of California, San Francisco
United States

Implementing HIV/Cervical Cancer Prevention CASCADE Clinical Trials in Zimbabwe (ZIM-CASCADE) 3UG1CA284918-03S1 Maria Silvina Frech, Ph.D., M.S.
Chong, Catherine Daniela

Mayo Clinic Arizona
United States

Biomarker Signature to Predict the Persistence of Post-Traumatic Headache 5R33NS113315-03 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Chong, Catherine Daniela

Mayo Clinic Arizona
United States

Biomarker Signature to Predict the Persistence of Post-Traumatic Headache 5R33NS113315-03 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Chung, Michael Hoonbae

Emory University
United States

HIV/cervical cancer cOntrol and Prevention clinical sitE in Kenya (HOPE-Kenya) 3UG1CA275400-04S1 Maria Silvina Frech, Ph.D., M.S.
Chung, Ki Young

Prisma Health - Upstate
United States

NCORP of the Carolinas (Greenville Health System NCORP) 3UG1CA189972-11S1 Vanessa A. White, M.P.H.
Chung, Ki Young

Prisma Health - Upstate
United States

NCORP of the Carolinas (Greenville Health System NCORP) 3UG1CA189972-11S1 Vanessa A. White, M.P.H.
Chung, Raymond T

Massachusetts General Hospital
United States

Trial of Statins for Chemoprevention in Hepatocellular Carcinoma 4R01CA255621-05 Asad Umar, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Clapper, Margie L.

Research Inst Of Fox Chase Can Ctr
United States

Folic Acid Supplementation and Colitis-associated Colon Carcinogenesis 5R01CA262551-04 Nancy J. Emenaker, Ph.D., RDN, LD, FAND
Clapper, Margie L.

Research Inst Of Fox Chase Can Ctr
United States

Cancer Prevention-Interception Targeted Agent Discovery Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center 5U54CA272686-04
Clare, Susan E.

Northwestern University At Chicago
United States

Lipid-initiated epigenetic reprogramming of the breast to a neural phenotype 1R21CA288676-01A1
Cocucci, Emanuele

Ohio State University
United States

A SYNTHETIC BIOMARKER TO UNIVERSALLY ASSESS THE RELATIVE CONTRIBUTION OF HEATHY AND CANCEROUS TISSUE TO CIRCULATING EV POOL 5R01CA270251-03 Matthew Young, Ph.D.
Cohen, Lorenzo

University Of Tx Md Anderson Can Ctr
United States

Opioid-Sparing Effects of Nurse-Delivered Hypnosis During Breast Cancer Surgery 5R01CA272565-03 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Cohen, Lorenzo

University Of Tx Md Anderson Can Ctr
United States

Opioid-Sparing Effects of Nurse-Delivered Hypnosis During Breast Cancer Surgery 5R01CA272565-03 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Cohn, Barbara A

Public Health Institute
United States

Discriminatory Mechanisms in Early-Onset and Lethal Prostate Cancer 5R01CA264519-05 Howard L. Parnes, M.D.
Cook, Linda S

University Of Colorado Denver
United States

NOT-CA-24-111 Improving Strategies for Cancer Reduction through Early-detection and ENgagement (I-SCREEN) 3UG1CA286941-02S1 Elyse LeeVan, M.D., 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