Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Jeremy Borniger has been selected for the final stages of a Cancer Grand Challenges research initiative as part of team NEUROIMPACT. The team seeks to determine how the nervous system senses and responds to cancers. In identifying the nervous system’s role in tumor growth and cancer metastasis, they aim to reverse those processes and uncover new therapeutic targets.
“I am looking forward to working with this team of international experts to systematically define how the nervous system detects cancer in the body, how malignant processes remodel brain circuits controlling behavior, and how we can manipulate these pathways to eliminate cancer,” Borniger says.
NEUROIMPACT is one of 12 multidisciplinary teams selected from a pool of 227 applicants. Seven of the 12 finalists will go on to receive 20 million euros in funding, or approximately $23.5 million. The team will now receive 30,000 euros to develop their full research proposal.
Team NEUROIMPACT is led by Rockefeller University Professor Sohail Tavazoie. Joining Tavazoie and Borniger in this initiative are six leading cancer neuroscientists from research institutions across the globe, including former CSHL Professor Mikala Egeblad, now at Johns Hopkins University.
The seven winning teams will be announced in March 2026.
Written by: Samuel Diamond, Senior Communications Strategist | diamond@cshl.edu | 516-367-5055