
Jeremy C. Borniger
Assistant Professor
Cancer Center Member
Ph.D., Ohio State University, 2017
bornige@cshl.edu | 516-367-5015
Patients with cancer frequently experience debilitating symptoms that can impair quality of life and reduce odds of survival. These include drastic changes in appetite, sleep/wake cycles, cognitive function, and pain, among others. Our lab aims to uncover mechanistic interactions between the brain and cancer that drive these phenomena. Reciprocally, we investigate how manipulation of specific brain circuits influences cancer processes in the body.
Why do patients with cancer (irrespective of cancer type) frequently experience systemic symptoms like pain, cognitive impairment, deficits in appetite, and disrupted sleep/wake cycles? What is the underlying biology governing these phenomena, and how can this biology be leveraged to improve peoples’ lives? To answer questions such as these, the Borniger lab investigates bi-directional communication between the brain and periphery in the context of cancer. The lab aims to determine how tumors disrupt neural circuit function, how aberrant cellular activity promotes cancer-associated systemic dysfunction, and how reciprocal outputs from the brain regulate cancer growth and metastasis. Specifically, the Borniger lab use techniques from systems neuroscience (e.g., optogenetics, calcium imaging, circuit mapping, electrophysiology, and behavioral assays) to dissect how factors in the tumor microenvironment alter host physiology and behavior. Recent work has focused on how central neuromodulator populations participate in cancer-associated sleep and metabolic disruption. The lab discovered that non-metastatic mammary tumors distally alter immune and endocrine signaling to aberrantly activate lateral hypothalamic hypocretin/orexin (HO) neurons. This resulted in disrupted sleep and hepatic glucose metabolism, the latter being driven by the sympathetic nervous system (Borniger et al., 2018 Cell Metabolism). This research, in combination with clinical work, will facilitate the development of novel treatments to improve outcomes for patients with cancer.
2019
NARSAD Young Investigator Award – Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF)
Travel Award – American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP)
2018
W.C. Young Recent Graduate Award – Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (SBN)
Cocktails & Chromosomes: How the brain and body communicate
September 19, 2024
Hungry? How do you know? To answer questions like this, CSHL’s Jeremy Borniger taps into the circuits controlling brain-body communication.
One Experiment: Brain-body’s feathery display
July 15, 2024
An angry peacock is no joke. Like the colorful bird and its tall tail feathers, cancer biology can make for some eye-catching images.
The Great North American Eclipse
May 13, 2024
CSHL faculty, students, and staff came together to witness one of the most breathtaking celestial events of our lifetime—a total solar eclipse.
New hope in the fight against neurofibromatosis
March 18, 2024
A partnership between CSHL and the Penny’s Flight Foundation aims to find a cure for NF1, the world’s most common single-gene neurological disorder.
The stars above CSHL
December 28, 2023
When he’s not busy pushing the frontiers of cancer research, CSHL’s Jeremy Borniger turns his attention to the final frontier—space.
President’s essay: Bringing bold visions to life
May 26, 2023
CSHL President & CEO Bruce Stillman sees the Laboratory as a global hub for scientific expertise and a powerful launchpad for early-career scientists.
Shrinking tumors with electricity
March 8, 2023
Step inside the lab of CSHL Associate Professor Jeremy C. Borniger, where he and his team are rewiring the nervous system to combat cancer cells.
The shocking new research making cancer nervous
March 8, 2023
Imagine an electronic device that can eliminate tumors. In our exclusive interview, Jeremy Borniger offers an inside look at this exciting new field.
Cancer has a lot of nerve
August 22, 2022
Tumors recruit the nervous system to help them spread. Scientists are looking for ways to stop it.
Three Strohm Sisters Family Foundation donates $20,000 to CSHL
December 16, 2021
The Three Strohm Sisters Family Foundation donated $20,000 for cancer research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
June 2018 – Cancer linked to sleep and metabolic disruption (Nature Reviews Endocrinology)
June 2018 – Tumours trigger systemic disruption (Nature Reviews Cancer)
Jan 2017 – Timing of chemo affects inflammation, mice study suggests
All Publications
Integrating priorities at the intersection of cancer and neuroscience
15 Oct 2024 | Cancer Cell | :S1535-6108(24)00362
Hwang, William; Perrault, Ella; Birbrair, Alexander; Mattson, Brandi; Gutmann, David; Mabbott, Donald; Cukierman, Edna; Repasky, Elizabeth; Sloan, Erica; Zong, Hui; Demir, Ihsan; Saloman, Jami; Borniger, Jeremy; Hu, Jian; Dietrich, Jorg; Breunig, Joshua; Çifcibaşı, Kaan; Ahmad Kasm, Khalil; Valiente, Manuel; Wintermark, Max; Acharya, Munjal; Scheff, Nicole; D'Silva, Nisha; Vermeer, Paola; Wong, Richard; Talbot, Sebastien; Hervey-Jumper, Shawn; Wang, Timothy; Ye, Yi; Pan, Yuan; Bunimovich, Yuri; Amit, Moran;  
Cancer neuroscience at the brain-body interface
3 Oct 2024 | Genes & Development
Borniger, Jeremy;  
A brain-body feedback loop driving HPA-axis dysfunction in breast cancer
14 Sep 2024 | bioRxiv
Gomez, Adrian; Wu, Yue; Zhang, Chao; Boyd, Leah; Wee, Tse-Luen; Gewolb, Joseph; Amor, Corina; Cheadle, Lucas; Borniger, Jeremy;  
Next Directions in the Neuroscience of Cancers Arising outside the CNS
4 Apr 2024 | Cancer Discovery | 14(4):669-673
Amit, Moran; Anastasaki, Corina; Dantzer, Robert; Demir, Ihsan; Deneen, Benjamin; Dixon, Karen; Egeblad, Mikala; Gibson, Erin; Hervey-Jumper, Shawn; Hondermarck, Hubert; Magnon, Claire; Monje, Michelle; Na'ara, Shorook; Pan, Yuan; Repasky, Elizabeth; Scheff, Nicole; Sloan, Erica; Talbot, Sebastien; Tracey, Kevin; Trotman, Lloyd; Valiente, Manuel; Van Aelst, Linda; Venkataramani, Varun; Venkatesh, Humsa; Vermeer, Paola; Winkler, Frank; Wong, Richard; Gutmann, David; Borniger, Jeremy;  
The cytokine receptor Fn14 is a molecular brake on neuronal activity that mediates circadian function in vivo
2 Apr 2024 | bioRxiv
Ferro, Austin; Arshad, Anosha; Boyd, Leah; Stanley, Tess; Berisha, Adrian; Vrudhula, Uma; Gomez, Adrian; Borniger, Jeremy; Cheadle, Lucas;  
Neuropeptides in Cancer: Friend and Foe?
1 Jul 2022 | Advanced Biology | :e2200111
Wu, Yue; Berisha, Adrian; Borniger, Jeremy;  
Sleep Disruption and Cancer: Chicken or the Egg?
19 May 2022 | Frontiers in Neuroscience | 16:856235
Berisha, Adrian; Shutkind, Kyle; Borniger, Jeremy;  
Cancer as a homeostatic challenge: the role of the hypothalamus
Sep 2021 | Trends in Neurosciences
Francis, Nikita; Borniger, Jeremy;  
Cancer as a tool for preclinical psychoneuroimmunology
17 Sep 2021 | Brain, Behavior, and Immunity - Health | :100351
Borniger, Jeremy;  
Machine learning approaches reveal subtle differences in breathing and sleep fragmentation in Phox2b-derived astrocytes ablated mice
1 Apr 2021 | Journal of Neurophysiology | 125(4):1164-1179
Silva, Talita; Borniger, Jeremy; Alves, Michele; Alzate Correa, Diego; Zhao, Jing; Fadda, Paolo; Toland, Amanda; Takakura, Ana; Moreira, Thiago; Czeisler, Catherine; Otero, José;