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Jeremy C. Borniger

Jeremy C. Borniger

Assistant Professor
Cancer Center Member

Ph.D., Ohio State University, 2017

bornige@cshl.edu | 516-367-5015

Borniger Lab Website   Faculty Profile

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)

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

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All Publications

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

Peripheral Lipopolyssacharide Rapidly Silences REM-Active LHGABA Neurons.

2021 | Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience | 15:649428
Borniger, Jeremy, de Lecea, Luis

Hypothalamic circuitry underlying stress-induced insomnia and peripheral immunosuppression.

Sep 2020 | Science Advances | 6(37):eabc2590
Li, Shi-Bin, Borniger, Jeremy, Yamaguchi, Hiroshi, Hédou, Julien, Gaudilliere, Brice, de Lecea, Luis

Roadmap for the Emerging Field of Cancer Neuroscience

16 Apr 2020 | Cell | 181(2):219-222
Monje, M, Borniger, J, D'Silva, N, Deneen, B, Dirks, P, Fattahi, F, Frenette, P, Garzia, L, Gutmann, D, Hanahan, D, Hervey-Jumper, S, Hondermarck, H, Hurov, J, Kepecs, A, Knox, S, Lloyd, A, Magnon, C, Saloman, J, Segal, R, Sloan, E, Sun, X, Taylor, M, Tracey, K, Trotman, L, Tuveson, D, Wang, T, White, R, Winkler, F

Neuroendocrine and Behavioral Consequences of Hyperglycemia in Cancer

20 Mar 2020 | Endocrinology | 161(5)
Vasquez, J, Borniger, J

Arousal State-Dependent Alterations in VTA-GABAergic Neuronal Activity.

1 Mar 2020 | eNeuro | 7(2):ENEURO.0356-19.2020
Eban-Rothschild, Ada, Borniger, Jeremy, Rothschild, Gideon, Giardino, William, Morrow, Joshua, de Lecea, Luis

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