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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
Papachristodoulou, Alexandros

Rutgers Biomedical And Health Sciences
United States

Investigating mitochondrial dysfunction in high-risk prostate cancer 4R00CA276713-03 Vignesh Gunasekharan, Ph.D.
Papadopoulos, Nickolas

Johns Hopkins University
United States

Multi-analyte Approach for Earlier Detection of Cancers in Non Plasma Biofluids 5U01CA230691-08 Nicholas Hodges, Ph.D.
Park, Youngkyu

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
United States

Preclinical Models for Cancer Therapeutic Development 5R50CA211506-10 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Paskett, Electra D.

Alliance Nctn Foundation
United States

Alliance NCORP Research Base 3UG1CA189823-11S3 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Paskett, Electra D.

Alliance Nctn Foundation
United States

Alliance NCORP Research Base 3UG1CA189823-11S3 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Paulovich, Amanda G

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
United States

Breast-cancer focused biomarker characterization center employing targeted mass spec assays in a CLIA environment 5U2CCA271873-03 Sidney Fu, M.D.
Paulson, Thomas G

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
United States

The microbiome ecosystem of Barrett's esophagus and progression to cancer 5R21CA259687-02 Matthew Young, Ph.D.
Paus, Ralf

University Of Miami School Of Medicine
United States

Pre-clinical testing of low intensity ultrasound as novel strategy to prevent paclitaxel-induced hair follicle damage in a humanized mouse model of chemotherapy-induced alopecia 1R21CA277418-01A1 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Paus, Ralf

University Of Miami School Of Medicine
United States

Pre-clinical testing of low intensity ultrasound as novel strategy to prevent paclitaxel-induced hair follicle damage in a humanized mouse model of chemotherapy-induced alopecia 1R21CA277418-01A1 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Pena, Maria Marjorette

University Of South Carolina At Columbia
United States

The Role of Early Life Exposure to Antibiotics on Risk of Early Onset Colorectal Cancer 1R21CA281729-01A1
Penedo, Frank J

University Of Miami Coral Gables
United States

eHealth Supported Mindfulness-based Music Therapy Intervention (eMBMT) in Hemopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patients 4R33CA263335-03 Asad Umar, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Penedo, Frank J

University Of Miami Coral Gables
United States

eHealth Supported Mindfulness-based Music Therapy Intervention (eMBMT) in Hemopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patients 4R33CA263335-03 Asad Umar, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Peppone, Luke Joseph

University Of Rochester
United States

High-dose Vitamin D Supplementation for ADT-Induced Bone Loss in Older Prostate Cancer Patients 5R01CA258349-04 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Peppone, Luke Joseph

University Of Rochester
United States

High-dose Vitamin D Supplementation for ADT-Induced Bone Loss in Older Prostate Cancer Patients 5R01CA258349-04 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Perez-Lougee, Giselle Katiria

Massachusetts General Hospital
United States

Thriving Beyond Treatment: A Resilience-Based Approach to Improve Long-term Quality of Life in Post-treatment Lymphoma Survivorship 1R37CA303094-01 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