黑料吃瓜资源

Peacocks symbolize a variety of things鈥攂eauty, luck, royalty, and more. But beneath those tall, colorful feathers lurks a hidden aggression. At a glance, the above image may bear some resemblance to peacock plumage. But it鈥檚 actually human breast cells (yellow) mingling with mouse neurons. It comes courtesy of 黑料吃瓜资源 (CSHL) Assistant Professor Jeremy Borniger.

As a postdoc, Borniger helped pioneer the field of cancer neuroscience. His lab is now helping scientists understand how tumors and the brain communicate with one another. This isn鈥檛 limited to signals passing back and forth. It also includes exchanges of organelles like mitochondria鈥攖he clusters of magenta dots above.

The brain is the body鈥檚 command center. It regulates processes like sleep and the immune response from the top down. It controls these and other daily activities with the help of the peripheral nervous system. Your brain relies on this branching network of nerves to get a sense of what鈥檚 going on throughout your body and respond accordingly.

But when cancer plugs into that neural network, things can start to go haywire. 鈥淐hanges in the brain can have diverse system-wide effects,鈥� Borniger explains. 鈥淭hings like elevated heart rate, release of stress hormones, and altered immune function. These can aid tumor growth and metastasis.鈥�

Borniger鈥檚 work is part of CSHL鈥檚 growing focus on brain-body physiology. It鈥檚 part of the Laboratory鈥檚 Foundations for the Future program. The project explores the complex interactions between cancer and the brain鈥攁nd their impact on the body.

The field was recently the focus of CSHL鈥檚 2024 Symposium on Quantitative Biology. Borniger was one of several CSHL neuroscientists who participated. A leading voice in brain-body physiology, he recently penned a review article on the topic for Cancer Discovery. The article points to what the authors call the 鈥�.鈥� They鈥檙e directions Borniger and his colleagues at CSHL are eager to pursue as they continue to explore the future of brain-body physiology.

Written by: Nick Wurm, Communications Specialist | [email protected] | 516-367-5940