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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
Yaddanapudi, Kavitha

University Of Louisville
United States

A Stem Cell Based Exosomal Vaccine for the Prevention of Cancer 5R21CA277314-02
Yaghjyan, Lusine

University Of Florida
United States

Stromal contributions to breast carcinogenesis 5R01CA277817-03 Christos Patriotis, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Yang, Qing

University Of Texas Med Br Galveston
United States

The role of acute excitation of sensory neurons in the development of paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy 5R01CA273001-02 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Yang, Qing

University Of Texas Med Br Galveston
United States

The role of acute excitation of sensory neurons in the development of paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy 5R01CA273001-02 Rachel Altshuler, Ph.D.
Yang, Wan

Columbia University Health Sciences
United States

UNCOVER: underlying novel causes of onset of very early cancer research 5R01CA257971-05 Nicholas Hodges, Ph.D.
Yeh, Jennifer M.

Boston Children'S Hospital
United States

Can risk-reducing medications improve breast cancer prevention in childhood and adolescent cancer survivors? Comparative modeling to inform care 5R01CA261874-04 Eileen Dimond, R.N., M.S.
Yendamuri, Saikrishna

Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corp
United States

Metformin for chemoprevention of lung cancer in obese subjects at high risk 5R01CA255515-05 Malgorzata Wojtowicz, M.D.
Yilmaz, Omer

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
United States

PROSPECT - Stem cell models 3OT2CA297570-01S1 Asad Umar, D.V.M., Ph.D.
You, Ming

Methodist Hospital Research Institute
United States

Targeting phenethyl isothiocyanate to mitochondria in lung carcinogenesis 5R01CA280746-02 John Clifford, Ph.D.
Young, Steven L

Duke University
United States

Collaborative Center to Develop Improved Diagnostic and Therapeutic Approaches to Endometriosis 5P01HD106485-05 Goli Samimi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Yu, Anthony Francis

Sloan-Kettering Inst Can Research
United States

Intensive Blood Pressure Control During Cardiotoxic Breast Cancer Treatment (PROTECT) Trial 5R37CA273923-03 Eileen Dimond, R.N., M.S.
Yu, Dihua

University Of Tx Md Anderson Can Ctr
United States

Exploring novel strategies for immunoprevention of estrogen receptor negative breast cancer 5R01CA270010-03 Marjorie Perloff, M.D.
Yu, Danxia

Vanderbilt University Medical Center
United States

Gut microbiota-related mechanisms that impact colorectal cancer risk after bariatric surgery 5R01CA275864-03 Edward Sauter, M.D., Ph.D.
Yu, Anthony Francis

Sloan-Kettering Inst Can Research
United States

Intensive Blood Pressure Control During Cardiotoxic Breast Cancer Treatment (PROTECT) Trial 5R37CA273923-03 Eileen Dimond, R.N., M.S.
Yuan, Ying

University Of Tx Md Anderson Can Ctr
United States

Coordinating and Data Management Center for Translational and Basic Science Research in Early Lesions 5U24CA274212-04 Christos Patriotis, Ph.D., M.Sc.

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