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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
Warner, Erica T

Massachusetts General Hospital
United States

Aspirins legacy on cancer and overall benefit: risk balance over a 15-year horizon 3U01CA301988-02S1 Asad Umar, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Washington, Karla

Washington University
United States

Problem-Solving Therapy for Cancer Caregivers: A Randomized Clinical Trial in Outpatient Palliative Care 5R01CA258311-05 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Washington, Karla

Washington University
United States

Problem-Solving Therapy for Cancer Caregivers: A Randomized Clinical Trial in Outpatient Palliative Care 5R01CA258311-05 Brennan Streck, Ph.D., RN, M.P.H.
Watt, Gordon Patrick

Netherlands Cancer Institute
United States

Quantitative background parenchymal enhancement, measured on contrast-enhanced mammogram, as a novel marker of breast cancer risk 3R37CA284134-03S1 Claire Zhu, Ph.D.
Webster, Nicholas J

Veterans Medical Research Fdn/San Diego
United States

The Effect of Time-Restricted Eating on the Efficiency of Chemo- and Hormonal-Therapy in Breast Cancer 5R21CA288777-02 Nancy J. Emenaker, Ph.D., RDN, LD, FAND
Webster, Nicholas J

University Of California, San Diego
United States

Time-restricted feeding and breast cancer 5R01CA196853-09 Nancy J. Emenaker, Ph.D., RDN, LD, FAND
Wei, Lei

Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corp
United States

Advancing skin cancer prevention by tackling UV-induced clonogenic mutations 5R01CA255242-05 Wendy Wang, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Welsh, Joellen

State University Of New York At Albany
United States

Vitamin K: Body Pools and Function in Breast Cancer 5R01CA258231-05 Young Kim, Ph.D.
Whitman, Eric

Atlantic Health System, Inc.
United States

The Atlantic Health Cancer Consortium Community Oncology Research Program (AHCC Corp) 3UG1CA239772-06S1 Vanessa A. White, M.P.H.
Whitman, Eric

Atlantic Health System, Inc.
United States

The Atlantic Health Cancer Consortium Community Oncology Research Program (AHCC Corp) 3UG1CA239772-06S1 Vanessa A. White, M.P.H.
Wildman-Tobriner, Benjamin

Duke University
United States

AI for Differentiation of Low vs High Risk Thyroid Nodules on Ultrasound 1R01CA297227-01A1 Wendy Wang, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Wilkin, Timothy J.

University Of California, San Diego
United States

Partnership for advancing cervical cancer prevention in women living with HIV (CASCADE - Research Hub) 5UG1CA275414-05 Maria Silvina Frech, Ph.D., M.S.
Williams, Paige L

Harvard University D/B/A Harvard School Of Public Health
United States

Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS) 2020 3P01HD103133-05S1 Vikrant Sahasrabuddhe, M.B.B.S., M.P.H., Dr.P.H.
Wilson, Michael R

Wayne State University
United States

Does obesity influence protein quality control in endometrial cancer? 5R00CA252152-05 Amit Kumar, Ph.D.
Winer, Rachel L.

University Of Washington
United States

The CASCADE CLIMB: Cervical cancer prevention in women Living with HIV research Mobilization Base 5UG1CA275402-04 Maria Silvina Frech, Ph.D., M.S.

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