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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
Mugo, Nelly Rwamba

Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri)
United States

KEMRI-PHRD UG1 CASCADE NETWORK UNIT: CERVICAL CANCER PREVENTION FOR WOMEN LIVING WITH HIV RESEARCH 3UG1CA285132-03S1 Maria Silvina Frech, Ph.D., M.S.
Muller, Carolyn Y

University Of New Mexico Health Scis Ctr
United States

The NCI Community Oncology Research Program: The New Mexico NCORP 3UG1CA189856-11S1 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Muller, Carolyn Y

University Of New Mexico Health Scis Ctr
United States

The NCI Community Oncology Research Program: The New Mexico NCORP 3UG1CA189856-11S1 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Mungo, Chemtai

Univ Of North Carolina Chapel Hill
United States

Expanded Safety and Preliminary Efficacy of Adjuvant 5-Fluorouracil Following Thermal Ablation to Improve HPV Treatment Outcomes in Women with HIV in Africa 3R37CA306827-01S2 Vikrant Sahasrabuddhe, M.B.B.S., M.P.H., Dr.P.H.
Mungo, Chemtai

Univ Of North Carolina Chapel Hill
United States

Feasibility of artesunate to improve HPV and cervical precancer treatment outcomes among HIV positive women in LMICs 3R34CA284983-03S2 Vikrant Sahasrabuddhe, M.B.B.S., M.P.H., Dr.P.H.
Murenzi, Gad

Research For Development
United States

Rwanda CASCADE Clinical Trials Site for cervical cancer prevention 5UG1CA284908-03 Maria Silvina Frech, Ph.D., M.S.
Mustian, Karen M.

University Of Rochester
United States

URCC NCORP Research Base 3UG1CA189961-11S1 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Mustian, Karen M.

University Of Rochester
United States

URCC NCORP Research Base 3UG1CA189961-11S1 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Muzumdar, Mandar Deepak

Yale University
United States

Targeting pancreatic endocrine-exocrine signaling in cancer development with incretin mimetics 1R01CA296916-01
Mwesigwa, Betty

Makerere University Walter Reed Project
United States

Implementing HIV/Cervical Cancer Prevention CASCADE Clinical Trials in Uganda (CASCADE UGANDA) 5UG1CA275412-04 Maria Silvina Frech, Ph.D., M.S.
Nabavi, Sheida

University Of Connecticut Storrs
United States

SCH: Robust Multimodal Longitudinal AI for Enhanced Breast Cancer Screening 5R01CA297855-02 Claire Zhu, Ph.D.
Naicker, Nivashnee

Centre/Aids Programme/Res/South Africa
United States

CAPRISA CASCADE Clinical Trials Network Clinical Research Site 5UG1CA284671-03 Maria Silvina Frech, Ph.D., M.S.
Nappi, Lucia

Provincial Health Services Authority
United States

Integrating investigational miR371a-3p with conventional radiology imaging for earlier and more precise detection of active germ cell malignancy: A BCC/SWOG/S1823 secondary use of data collaboration. 5R37CA264798-03 Guillermo Marquez, Ph.D.
Nath, Kavindra

University Of Pennsylvania
United States

Metabolic Biomarkers of Response of Mantle Cell Lymphoma to Bruton Tyrosine Kinase Inhibition 5R01CA228457-05 Nicholas Hodges, Ph.D.
Nelson, Randy J.

West Virginia University
United States

Mechanism Underlying Sleep Disruption by Mammary Tumors 5R21CA276027-02 Marjorie Perloff, M.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