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)
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.
Stress, sleep, and immunity
September 9, 2020
Researchers found the brain circuit that connects stress-induced insomnia and the immune system in mice.
Charting a new field of cancer neuroscience
April 16, 2020
A Banbury Center meeting of 35 experts proposes a new field to study the relationship between cancer and neuroscience.
Studying what connects cancer and the brain
January 28, 2020
Assistant Professor Jeremy Borniger joins the CSHL faculty to study the link between the brain and cancer.
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
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, & 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