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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
Giles, Erin

University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor
United States

Obesity, body fat distribution, and breast cancer risk: is visceral fat the culprit after menopause? 5R01CA269726-02 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Gill, Brian John Andrew

Columbia University Health Sciences
United States

The Impact of Local and Reversible Change to GABAergic Inhibitory Signaling on Tumor-Induced Cortical Dysfunction in Glioma 1R01NS140658-01A1 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Gill, Brian John Andrew

Columbia University Health Sciences
United States

The Impact of Local and Reversible Change to GABAergic Inhibitory Signaling on Tumor-Induced Cortical Dysfunction in Glioma 1R01NS140658-01A1 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Godwin, Andrew K.

University Of Kansas Medical Center
United States

Extracellular Vesicle Proteomic Fingerprinting of Ovarian Cancer for Early Detection with a Nanoengineered Microsystem 5R01CA260132-05 Matthew Young, Ph.D.
Goel, Ajay

Beckman Research Institute/City Of Hope
United States

Exosomal biomarkers for the early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma 5R01CA271443-03 Matthew Young, Ph.D.
Goel, Ajay

Beckman Research Institute/City Of Hope
United States

5mC and 5hmC DNA alterations as sensitive and specific biomarkers for the non-invasive early detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma 1U01CA296639-01A1 Claire Zhu, Ph.D.
Goel, Ajay

Beckman Research Institute/City Of Hope
United States

Exosome-based microRNA biomarkers for Non-invasive and Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer 3U01CA214254-08S2 Matthew Young, Ph.D.
Goggins, Michael G.

Johns Hopkins University
United States

Using markers to improve pancreatic cancer screening and surveillance: a multi-center study 5U01CA210170-09 Matthew Young, Ph.D.
Goncalves, Marcus Dasilva

New York University School Of Medicine
United States

Molecular Mechanisms of Fructose-induced Colorectal Cancer Cell Survival 5R01CA258697-05 Amit Kumar, Ph.D.
Gonzalez, Brian D

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Ctr & Res Inst
United States

Impact of Targeted Therapy on Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment 5R01CA287666-02 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Gonzalez, Brian D

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Ctr & Res Inst
United States

Impact of Targeted Therapy on Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment 5R01CA287666-02 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Goode, Diana J

University Of New England
United States

Novel expression of MHC class II on DRG neurons and its role in promoting antinociceptive CD4+ T cells in females during chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy 5R01CA267554-04 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Goode, Diana J

University Of New England
United States

Novel expression of MHC class II on DRG neurons and its role in promoting antinociceptive CD4+ T cells in females during chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy 5R01CA267554-04 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Grady, William Mallory

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
United States

Understanding adenoma progression: Interplay among tissue microenvironment, clonal architecture, and gut microbiome 3U54CA274374-04S2 Christos Patriotis, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Grady, William Mallory

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
United States

Biomarkers for optimizing risk prediction and early detection of cancers of the colon and esophagus 5U2CCA271902-04 Matthew Young, 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