Jeremy C. Borniger
Associate Professor
Cancer Center Member
Ph.D., Ohio State University, 2017
[email protected] | 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鈥 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 鈥 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)
Let鈥檚 get on pancreatic cancer鈥檚 nerves
February 9, 2026
CSHL postdoc Jeremy Nigri and colleagues in the Tuveson lab have discovered that the nervous system plays a role in pancreatic cancer development.
Borniger wins Mark Foundation Emerging Leader Award
January 13, 2026
The prestigious award is given to outstanding early career investigators, enabling them to pursue high-impact, high-risk projects.
Day & night: Cancer disrupts the brain鈥檚 natural rhythm
December 15, 2025
CSHL scientists find that stimulating key neurons at certain times resets stress hormone rhythms disrupted by cancer, aiding anti-tumor defenses.
Borniger reaches Cancer Grand Challenges finals
September 24, 2025
The CSHL scientist is on one of 12 teams chosen from a pool of 227. Next March, seven teams will be selected to receive over $20 million in funding.
Mind-blowing neuroscience research
July 22, 2025
Over the last year, CSHL has made many key discoveries in brain development and neurological conditions, from autism to Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.
A new body of knowledge
June 24, 2025
Get a guided tour of the world鈥檚 first hands-on cancer neuroscience course, and meet the scientists pioneering this new field of research.
At the Lab: An evening out with the brain and body
June 10, 2025
Ever go to a neuroscience talk and wish it had more sound effects? Then this is the episode for you.
Veronica Beard hosts CSHL鈥揚enny鈥檚 Flight fundraiser
April 7, 2025
Fashion meets philanthropy as CSHL and Penny鈥檚 Flight Foundation partner with Veronica Beard to support groundbreaking research.
CSHL holds first-ever cancer neuroscience course
March 24, 2025
How does one study the nervous system鈥檚 influence on cancer? They come to CSHL. The field is so new there hasn鈥檛 been any formal training鈥攗ntil now.
Cocktails & Chromosomes: How the brain and body communicate
September 19, 2024
Hungry? How do you know? To answer questions like this, CSHL鈥檚 Jeremy Borniger taps into the circuits controlling brain-body communication.
June 2018 鈥 (Nature Reviews Endocrinology)
June 2018 鈥 (Nature Reviews Cancer)
Jan 2017 鈥
All Publications
5 Aug 2025 | Science Signaling | 18(898)
Boyd, Leah; Borniger, Jeremy;
11 Jul 2025 | Sleep | 48(7):zsaf073
Boyd, Leah; Berisha, Adrian; Gomez, Adrian; Gibson, Erin; Borniger, Jeremy;
4 Mar 2025 | npj Imaging | 3(1)
Battison, Alexandria; Merrill, Joseph; Borniger, Jeremy; Lyons, Scott;
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; Çifciba艧谋, 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;
3 Oct 2024 | Genes & Development
Borniger, Jeremy;
14 Sep 2024 | bioRxiv
Gomez, Adrian; Wu, Yue; Zhang, Chao; Boyd, Leah; Wee, Tse-Luen; Gewolb, Joseph; Amor, Corina; Cheadle, Lucas; Borniger, Jeremy;
8 May 2024 | bioRxiv
Daruwalla, Kyle; Martin, Irene; Frankel, Andrew; Naglic, Diana; Ahmad, Zainab; Hou, Xun;
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;
2 Apr 2024 | bioRxiv
Ferro, Austin; Arshad, Anosha; Boyd, Leah; Stanley, Tess; Berisha, Adrian; Vrudhula, Uma; Gomez, Adrian; Borniger, Jeremy; Cheadle, Lucas;
1 Jul 2022 | Advanced Biology | :e2200111
Wu, Yue; Berisha, Adrian; Borniger, Jeremy;