Jimo Borjigin, PhD

Associate Professor, Molecular & Integrative Physiology
Associate Professor, Neurology

734-763-5453
borjigin@umich.edu

Dr. Borjigin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and the Department of Neurology. She received a B.S. in Physics and M.S in Biophysics from Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. She received a PhD in Neuroscience from the Johns Hopkins University in 1994. From 1994 until 1998, Dr. Borjigin received postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Solomon H. Snyder. Her first independent position was in the Department of Embryology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington from 1998 to 2003. Dr. Borjigin joined the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology in 2003 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009. She also has a joint faculty position in the Department of Neurology and is a member of Neuroscience Graduate Program.

Research in Dr. Borjigin’s laboratory is focused on systems neuroscience aiming to understand the operation of mammalian physiology in health and disease. One of the main projects has been to understand how circadian rhythms are generated and coordinated temporally and spatially. These circadian studies are driven by a powerful approach perfected in Dr. Borjigin's laboratory: long-term (up to 100 days) pineal microdialysis to sample melatonin release at high-resolution (every 10-20 min) in freely moving animals. Using this technique, they have been able to uncover novel features of circadian rhythms that were previously unknown, including identification of rats with extreme chronotypes (rats with very early and very late melatonin onset). These studies will lead to a better understanding of basic properties of circadian timing. They will also provide clues on how jet lag, shift-work, and light-at-night impact our circadian rhythms and health.

One of Borjigin laboratory’s newest projects is to define electrical oscillations of the brain at the systems level in animals experiencing global hypoxia or global ischemia. This new line of research utilizes physical principles of vibrations and waves and mathematical modeling of brain oscillations, and has been performed in collaboration with experts both in and outside of U-M. These studies aim to provide a better understanding of how the brain processes information in health and disease.