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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
Madeleine, Margaret M

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
United States

Colaboracion Evita: HPV-Related Cancer Prevention Partnership Center 3U54CA242977-07S4 Maria Silvina Frech, Ph.D., M.S.
Mahan, Kristin Eckel

University Of Texas Hlth Sci Ctr Houston
United States

Circadian regulation of astrocytic adenosine kinase in the irradiated and cancer brain 1R21CA292148-01 John Clifford, Ph.D.
Mahan, Kristin Eckel

University Of Texas Hlth Sci Ctr Houston
United States

Circadian regulation of astrocytic adenosine kinase in the irradiated and cancer brain 1R21CA292148-01 John Clifford, Ph.D.
Maitra, Anirban

New York University School Of Medicine
United States

Clinical Validation Center for Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer 7U01CA200468-09 Matthew Young, Ph.D.
Maitra, Anirban

New York University School Of Medicine
United States

Clinical Validation Center for Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer 7U01CA200468-09 Matthew Young, Ph.D.
Majumder, Shounak

Mayo Clinic Rochester
United States

Mayo Clinic Prospective Resource for Biomarker Validation and Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer 5U01CA210138-09 Matthew Young, Ph.D.
Maldonado, Fabien

Vanderbilt University Medical Center
United States

Novel Integrative Approach for the Early Detection of Lung Cancer using Repeated Measures 5R01CA253923-05
Mallery, Susan R

Ohio State University
United States

Assessment of Chemopreventive Effects of a Mucoadhesive Fenretinide Patch on Premalignant Oral Epithelial Lesions 5R01CA227273-06 Malgorzata Wojtowicz, M.D.
Mallery, Susan R

Ohio State University
United States

Formulation, Evaluation, and Phase 0 Trial of Nanoparticle Releasing Oral Thin Film for OSCC Chemoprevention 5R01CA258757-04 Malgorzata Wojtowicz, M.D.
Mallick, Parag Kumar

Stanford University
United States

Pathomic Predictors of Prostate Cancer Progression 5R01CA249899-05
Mana, Miyeko

Arizona State University-Tempe Campus
United States

Influence of developmental programming in adult stem cells and cancer 1R01CA301086-01 Young Kim, Ph.D.
Mao, Jun J

Sloan-Kettering Inst Can Research
United States

Enhanced Pain Coping in Cancer (EPIC) 5R01CA285746-02 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Mao, Jun J

Sloan-Kettering Inst Can Research
United States

Enhanced Pain Coping in Cancer (EPIC) 5R01CA285746-02 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Marchand, Loic Le

University Of Hawaii At Manoa
United States

Effects of Intermittent Energy Restriction on Intra-Abdominal Fat and the Gut Microbiome: A Randomized Trial 5R01CA258179-05 Gabriela Riscuta, M.D., CNS
Marchetti, Dario

University Of New Mexico Health Scis Ctr
United States

Mechanisms of melanoma brain metastasis by CTCs isolated from patients' blood and CSF 5R01CA216991-07 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