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Exposure to infectious disease in early life may have long-term ramifications for health and lifespan. However, reducing pathogen exposure may not be uniformly beneficial. The rise of modern sanitation and reduction of infectious diseases has been implicated in increasing levels of allergy and immune dysregulation: termed, the "hygiene hypothesis." This study leverages quasi-experimental variation from combining precampaign hookworm exposure with the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission's deworming...

How societies remember the dead can reveal what people value in life. We analyzed 38 million obituaries from the United States to examine how personal values are encoded in individual and collective legacies. Using Schwartz's theory of basic human values, we found that tradition and benevolence dominated legacy reflections, while values like power and stimulation appeared less frequently. Major cultural events-the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the 2008 financial crisis, and the COVID-19...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by the death of substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) dopamine (DA) neurons, but the pathophysiological mechanisms that precede and drive their death remain unknown. The activity of DA neurons is likely altered in PD, but we understand little about if or how chronic changes in activity may contribute to degeneration. To address this question, we developed a chemogenetic (DREADD) mouse model to chronically increase DA neuron activity and confirmed this...

Ageing of the haematopoietic system is characterized by phenotypic and functional impairments that are driven by alterations of haematopoietic stem cells and of the bone marrow niche. Haematopoietic stem cells are responsible for the production of all the different cell types that constitute the blood, and their maintenance and differentiation must be tightly regulated during the whole life of an organism. Exciting new data emphasize that central aspects of blood ageing, ranging from...

Megan O’Rourke hopes to be a voice for science, also touts her blue-collar roots