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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
Langevin, Anne-Marie R.

University Of Texas Hlth Science Center
United States

Texas Pediatric NCORP 3UG1CA189855-11S1 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Langevin, Anne-Marie R.

University Of Texas Hlth Science Center
United States

Texas Pediatric NCORP 3UG1CA189855-11S1 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Leal, Ana Sofia Mendes

Indiana University Indianapolis
United States

Nrf2, immune cells and lung cancer 7R01CA226690-06 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Lee, Jeffrey Kuang Zou

Kaiser Foundation Research Institute
United States

Vanguard Study Administrative Supplement 3UG1CA287011-02S1 Elyse LeeVan, M.D., M.P.H.
Lee, Hakho

Massachusetts General Hospital
United States

Expanding early cancer detection with high throughput OCEANA - Ovarian Cancer Exosome Analysis with Nanoplasmonic Array 5U01CA284982-03 Nicholas Hodges, Ph.D.
Lee, Richard T

Beckman Research Institute/City Of Hope
United States

A Pilot Study to Evaluate the Benefits of Phytocannabinoids for the Treatment of Chronic Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy 1R21CA260447-01A1 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Lee, Richard T

Beckman Research Institute/City Of Hope
United States

A Pilot Study to Evaluate the Benefits of Phytocannabinoids for the Treatment of Chronic Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy 1R21CA260447-01A1 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Lee, Juhun

University Of Pittsburgh At Pittsburgh
United States

Detecting Mammographically-Occult Cancer in Women with Dense Breasts Using Digital Breast Tomosynthesis 5R01CA269540-03 Sidney Fu, M.D.
Lehto, Rebecca H

Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences
United States

Support for bereaved friend and family caregivers of cancer patients 1R03CA282943-01A1 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Lehto, Rebecca H

Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences
United States

Support for bereaved friend and family caregivers of cancer patients 1R03CA282943-01A1 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Lehto, Rebecca H

Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences
United States

Support for bereaved friend and family caregivers of cancer patients 1R03CA282943-01A1 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Lenburg, Marc Elliott

Boston University Medical Campus
United States

The Boston University - UCLA Lung Cancer Biomarker Characterization Center 5U2CCA271898-04 Guillermo Marquez, Ph.D.
Lesch, Bluma J

Yale University
United States

Defining signatures of epigenetic sensitization to lung cancer in a mouse model 5R21CA288677-02 Guillermo Marquez, Ph.D.
Leslie, Kimberly K.

University Of New Mexico Health Scis Ctr
United States

Advancing Hormone Therapy for Endometrial Cancer 1P01CA278735-01A1 Goli Samimi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Lesser, Glenn J

Wake Forest University Health Sciences
United States

Wake Forest NCORP Research Base 3UG1CA189824-11S2 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.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