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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
Vinciguerra, Vincent P

Feinstein Institute For Medical Research
United States

Northwell Health NCORP 3UG1CA189850-11S2 Vanessa A. White, M.P.H.
Wagner, Lynne I.

Ecog-Acrin Medical Research Foundation
United States

ECOG-ACRIN NCORP Research Base 3UG1CA189828-11S2 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Wagner, Lynne I.

Ecog-Acrin Medical Research Foundation
United States

ECOG-ACRIN NCORP Research Base 3UG1CA189828-11S2 Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Wallace, Douglas C

Children'S Hosp Of Philadelphia
United States

Anti-tumor immunity and intestinal microbiota are modulated by mitochondrial DNA 5R01CA259635-04 Young Kim, Ph.D.
Wang, Tza-Huei Jeff

Johns Hopkins University
United States

A low-cost, multiplexed digital high resolution melt platform for DNA methylation-based detection and identification of cancers in liquid biopsies 5R33CA272321-03 Christos Patriotis, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Wang, Tza-Huei Jeff

Johns Hopkins University
United States

Development of a low-cost epigenetic screening assay for Pap specimen-based detection of early-stage ovarian cancer in high-risk women 5R01CA260628-05 Christos Patriotis, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Wang, Kai

Massachusetts General Hospital
United States

Dietary prevention for colorectal cancer: targeting the bile acid/gut microbiome axis 4R00CA283146-03 Amit Kumar, Ph.D.
Wang, Linghua

University Of Tx Md Anderson Can Ctr
United States

Center for Gastric Pre-Cancer Atlas of Multidimensional Evolution in 3D (GAME3D) 4U01CA294518-02 Indu Kohaar, Ph.D., M.Phil., M.Sc.
Wang, Jing

New York University School Of Medicine
United States

Optimizing the use of ketamine to reduce chronic postsurgical pain 3UH3CA261067-05S1 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Wang, Hsiao-Lan

University Of Alabama At Birmingham
United States

A Motion Exergaming Approach to Promote Self-Managing Fatigue and Pain after Head and Neck Cancer Treatment 5R01CA244947-06 Goli Samimi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Wang, Thomas D

University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor
United States

Early detection of colorectal cancer in the traditional and serrated pathways 5R01CA249851-05 Guillermo Marquez, Ph.D.
Wang, Jing

New York University School Of Medicine
United States

Optimizing the use of ketamine to reduce chronic postsurgical pain 3UH3CA261067-05S1 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Wang, Hsiao-Lan

University Of Alabama At Birmingham
United States

A Motion Exergaming Approach to Promote Self-Managing Fatigue and Pain after Head and Neck Cancer Treatment 5R01CA244947-06 Goli Samimi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Wang, Thomas D

University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor
United States

Peptide multimer for early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma 5R01CA285303-02 Guillermo Marquez, Ph.D.
Wang, Hsiao-Lan

University Of Alabama At Birmingham
United States

A Motion Exergaming Approach to Promote Self-Managing Fatigue and Pain after Head and Neck Cancer Treatment 5R01CA244947-06 Goli Samimi, 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