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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

No matching Funding Opportunities were found.

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Grantee Details

PI Name Sort descending PI Organization Title Grant Number Program Official
Sieren, Jessica C

University Of Iowa
United States

Lung cancer screening efficacy enhanced through radiomic and epigenetic biomarkers 5R01CA267820-03 Nicholas Hodges, Ph.D.
Sigel, Keith Magnus

Icahn School Of Medicine At Mount Sinai
United States

The effectiveness of screening women with lower genital tract neoplasia or cancers for anal cancer precursors 4R01CA256660-05 Vikrant Sahasrabuddhe, M.B.B.S., M.P.H., Dr.P.H.
Simeone, Diane M

University Of California, San Diego
United States

Biomarker Validation in Pancreatic Cystic Neoplasms 5U01CA282272-03 Matthew Young, Ph.D.
Siminski, Suzanne M.

Frontier Sci & Technology Rsch Fdn, Inc
United States

CASCADE Coordinating Center 5U24CA275417-04 Maria Silvina Frech, Ph.D., M.S.
Singal, Amit

Ut Southwestern Medical Center
United States

Clinical Validation Center for Hepatocellular Carcinoma 5U01CA271887-04 Indu Kohaar, Ph.D., M.Phil., M.Sc.
Singal, Amit

Ut Southwestern Medical Center
United States

Precision Risk Stratification and Screening for HCC among Patients with Indeterminate Liver Nodules 4U01CA283935-03 Sidney Fu, M.D.
Singal, Amit

Ut Southwestern Medical Center
United States

Clinical Validation Center for Hepatocellular Carcinoma 5U01CA271887-04 Indu Kohaar, Ph.D., M.Phil., M.Sc.
Singal, Amit

Ut Southwestern Medical Center
United States

Precision Screening for Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Patients with Cirrhosis 5R01CA222900-06
Singal, Amit

Ut Southwestern Medical Center
United States

Precision Risk Stratification and Screening for HCC among Patients with Cirrhosis in the United States 5U01CA230694-05
Siskind, Leah J

University Of Louisville
United States

Protecting the kidney from cisplatin induced injury and progression to chronic kidney disease 1R01CA305985-01 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Siskind, Leah J

University Of Louisville
United States

Protecting the kidney from cisplatin induced injury and progression to chronic kidney disease 1R01CA305985-01 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Skates, Steven J

Massachusetts General Hospital
United States

Proteomic Analyses of Serial Prediagnostic PLCO Serum in Cases and Controls to Identify Early Detection Ovarian Cancer Biomarkers Rising in a Substantial Fraction of Cases and Stable in Most Controls 5U01CA260758-05 Claire Zhu, Ph.D.
Skates, Steven J

Massachusetts General Hospital
United States

Genome-wide methylation and proteomic analysis of uterine lavage and cervical swab for early detection of ovarian cancer 5U2CCA271871-03 Christos Patriotis, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Skubitz, Amy Patrice

University Of Minnesota
United States

A paradigm shift for ovarian cancer biomarkers: Utilizing routine Pap tests as liquid biopsies for the development of targeted mass spectrometry-based proteomic assays for early detection 5R01CA262153-05 Christos Patriotis, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Slager, Susan L

Mayo Clinic Rochester
United States

The genetic and epigenetic etiology of progression from the precursor state to chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) 4R01CA258465-04 Nicholas Hodges, 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