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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
Dryden-Peterson, Scott

Brigham And Women'S Hospital
United States

Botswana CASCADE Clinical Trials Site 3UG1CA275416-04S1 Maria Silvina Frech, Ph.D., M.S.
Duan, Bin

University Of Nebraska Medical Center
United States

Flupirtine Analogue Synthesis and Screening for the Treatment of Chemotherapy-Induced Neuropathic Pain 1R21CA298918-01 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Duan, Bin

University Of Nebraska Medical Center
United States

Flupirtine Analogue Synthesis and Screening for the Treatment of Chemotherapy-Induced Neuropathic Pain 1R21CA298918-01 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Duan, Bin

University Of Nebraska Medical Center
United States

Flupirtine Analogue Synthesis and Screening for the Treatment of Chemotherapy-Induced Neuropathic Pain 1R21CA298918-01 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Duncavage, Eric J

Washington University
United States

Whole Genome Sequencing for Genomic Evaluation and Risk Stratification of Patients with Myelodysplastic Syndromes 4UH3CA272904-02 Nicholas Hodges, Ph.D.
Duvall, Adam S.

University Of Chicago
United States

Tailoring a fun and engaging tech-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy program for adolescents and young adults with hematological malignancies: A planning grant 1R34CA297498-01 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Duvall, Adam S.

University Of Chicago
United States

Tailoring a fun and engaging tech-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy program for adolescents and young adults with hematological malignancies: A planning grant 1R34CA297498-01 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Duvall, Adam S.

University Of Chicago
United States

Tailoring a fun and engaging tech-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy program for adolescents and young adults with hematological malignancies: A planning grant 1R34CA297498-01 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Eastham, James A

Sloan-Kettering Inst Can Research
United States

Influence of intra-individual variability in serial screening samples on clinical decision-making for risk stratification and biopsy by a single PSA and additional markers 5U01CA266535-04 Claire Zhu, Ph.D.
Eibl, Guido Erwin Michael

University Of California Los Angeles
United States

Chemoprevention and mechanisms of obesity-promoted pancreatic adenocarcinoma 5P01CA236585-05
Eickhoff, Jens

University Of Wisconsin-Madison
United States

CP-CTNet Coordinating Center 1UG1CA304955-01 Donald Johnsey
Eisenmann, Eric Daniel

Ohio State University
United States

Damage-associated molecular patterns in chemotherapy toxicity 1R37CA299879-01 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Eisenmann, Eric Daniel

Ohio State University
United States

Damage-associated molecular patterns in chemotherapy toxicity 1R37CA299879-01 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
El-Bayoumy, Karam E

Pennsylvania State Univ Hershey Med Ctr
United States

Chemoprevention by Black Raspberry of Oral Cancer Induced by Tobacco Carcinogens: Translational Studies 5R01CA173465-10 Gabriela Riscuta, M.D., CNS
El-Serag, Hashem B

Baylor College Of Medicine
United States

Prevention of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Related to Metabolic Syndrome 5P01CA263025-04 Asad Umar, D.V.M., 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