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CCPS students place in 2026 science fair
Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) held the 10th annual History, Industry, Technology and Science Expo, also known as HITS, on March 21 at St. Charles High School.
Losses triple for Highmark Health in 2025: ‘We’re still in the middle of the storm’
Despite revenue gains, operating losses continued for the second consecutive year in 2025 at hospital and health insurance giant Highmark Health as the...
Iran war starts to hit global economy, business surveys show
The Iran war is already taking a toll on major economies around the world, according to business surveys on Tuesday which showed how a surge in energy prices and rising uncertainty were dampening activity and pushing inflation expectations higher.
Big concerts, free movies highlight Iroquois Amphitheater's 2026 season
More shows and events will be added, said Louisville Parks and Recreation.
World Tuberculosis Day 2026: Primary health care key to a more accessible, people-centered response
In the Americas, an estimated 350,000 people fell ill with tuberculosis in 2024, and nearly 77,000 were not diagnosed, highlighting the need to bring diagnosis and treatment closer to communities.
Samsung's cheaper Mini LED TVs are now on sale
Samsung unveiled new budget Mini LED TVs as well as some higher-end models using its Quantum Mini LED tech.
Subtle health changes may signal progressive supranuclear palsy years in advance
Drawing from UK Biobank data, Mass General Brigham researchers have uncovered specific health factors linked to higher or lower risk of developing progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare but devastating ...
US business activity slows as war-driven costs surge
U.S. business activity slowed in March to its weakest pace in nearly a year as rising costs tied to the Iran conflict weighed on demand, Bloomberg writes. A key S&P Global index dipped but remained in expansion territory, while input prices surged to multimonth highs. Service sector growth softened, hiring declined and companies passed higher […]
Addressing Concussion Risk and Recovery for Women in Sports
Heather P Adams, MPAS, PA-C, discusses why women in sports may face higher concussion risks and longer recovery times than men.
U.S. Business Activity Hits 11-Month Low as War Drives Prices Higher
U.S. business activity growth slowed to an 11-month low in March while prices surged, according to a preliminary S&P Global survey released Tuesday. S&P’s composite output index, based on its surveys of services and manufacturing firms, fell to 51.4 from 51.9 in February. That was its weakest readi
Lee’s Summit weighs permit for seasonal inflatable sports dome
Lee's Summit City Council discusses inflatable high school sports complex with full-size pitch.
High on Life 2's Switch 2 release delayed "to better meet not only our high standards for gaming, but yours as well"
High on Life 2, the sequel to the crude and comedic FPS from Squanch Games, has had its Switch 2 release delayed by a couple of months.
Optical Vortex Phase Masks for the Detection of Habitable Worlds
A team of NASA researchers is developing new types of optical masks that could help enable the many orders of magnitude of starlight suppression needed for future space observatories to pick out very faint habitable exoplanets from the far brighter glare of their stellar hosts.
Alliant Private Client Strengthens Entertainment Practice with Addition of Michelle Quintero
IRVINE, Calif., March 24, 2026--Michelle Quintero has joined Alliant Insurance Services as Executive Vice President with Alliant Private Client. Based on the West Coast and recognized by Risk & Insurance® as a 2026 Entertainment, Hospitality & Gaming Power Broker®, Quintero brings more than 25 years of technical acumen and delivers tailored solutions to high-profile and celebrated individuals in music, film, and live events.
Highly and casually active citizen scientists contribute equally valuable data
A new study shows that contributions from both highly and casually active citizen scientists can be equally valuable and — in some cases — even complement each other.
UAB scholar receives highest recognition from national small-business and entrepreneurship association
UAB scholar receives highest recognition from national small-business and entrepreneurship association
Registration opens for hands-on ocean science program for teachers this summer
Registration has officially opened for BLOOM Educators, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences' professional development program offering hands-on training for middle and high school teachers.
UCLA Health podcast shines a light on colorectal cancer prevention, early detection and rising risks
UCLA Health's podcast episode on colorectal cancer, featuring Dr. Eve Glazier, Katie Couric and Dr. Fola May, highlights the critical need for prevention and early detection amid rising risks, particularly among younger adults. The discussion focuses on cancer screening, lifestyle modifications and advocacy to reduce the incidence of this disease.
High school baseball and softball: Monday's scores
CIF City Section and Southern Section high school baseball and softball scores for Monday's games.
Nets' struggles continue after blowout loss to Trail Blazers
Toumani Camara had career highs of nine three-pointers and 35 points to help Portland beat the Brooklyn Nets 134-99 on Monday night, the Trail Blazers’ largest margin of victory this season.
MDMA Therapy in Australia Shows Results for PTSD Patients, but the Cost Is Limiting Access
The country’s experiment with psychedelic medicine has led to positive outcomes, psychiatrists say, but also highlights the limitations of the nascent field.
High school sports results for Monday, March 23, 2026
MONDAY’S RESULTS Baseball WPIAL CLASS 5A Section 1 Latrobe 13, Penn-Trafford 12 Plum 9, Armstrong 3 WPIAL CLASS 3A Section 3 Deer Lakes 10, Southmoreland...
We disagreed on politics. We agreed on wine. That was enough.
At the Virginia Governor’s Cup Gala in Richmond earlier this month, a very dapper gentleman approached me and introduced himself. In his light-colored suit and bowtie, he looked very Southern in a classical sense, the sort of Virginia Gentleman you used to see south of the Rappahannock as recently as my college days. “I’m a longtime reader and fan of your writing, if not your politics,” he said. His comment was the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove, simultaneously conveying praise and disapproval while establishing boundaries. Man, I wish we still discoursed like this instead of shouting bromides and insults to try and “own” our opponents with a funny meme and a furrowed brow. Subscribe “Well, we’ll always have wine to share together,” I said, and thanked him for his kind words. We clinked glasses, exchanged pleasantries about the delicious gold medal-winning wines being poured that evening, and went our separate ways. Our exchange reminded me that more unites us than divides us. Wine brings people together to share a meal and a few hours of joy despite our differences.1 That’s why I refer to the wine community — including readers and consumers — rather than the wine industry. Together, we are so much more than production, distribution and sales statistics. A few minutes later the evening’s awards ceremony began. Applause grew as the 12 winemakers who made the top-scoring wines for the Governor’s Case took the stage, including a loud cheer for Jonathan Wheeler of Trump Winery and his 2018 Blanc de Noir sparkling wine. All the winemakers on stage had reason to be proud, Wheeler perhaps more so. Trump Winery was the only winery to win six gold medals in the competition this year. (Wineries are limited to six entries.) Two of Wheeler’s ciders also won gold medals in a separate competition. When you cover the labels and take the sour taste of politics off your palate, the wines are pretty darn good.2 Then Gov. Abigail Spanberger, newly elected Democrat and Virginia’s first female governor, was introduced to great applause to announce which of the 12 wines had won the Governor’s Cup. She spoke for a few minutes about the importance of wine to Virginia’s economy and tourism and the international acclaim Virginia wine has received. Just two weeks earlier, she gave the Democrats’ response to Trump’s State of the Union speech, but this night wasn’t about politics. That didn’t stop several people in the crowd from speculating on the irony should she have to present the trophy to Trump Winery. In the end, Valley Road Vineyards was displayed on the screen behind Spanberger as the winning winery. Blue Bee Cidery in Richmond took top honors for that category. The crowd cheered a female governor presenting the state’s highest trophy to a female winemaker and then resumed the evening’s festivities, united by their mutual love of wine. A whiff of politics couldn’t dim the cheer of celebration and a community united by its love of wine. In Memoriam: Michel Rolland The global wine community lost a giant March 20, with the passing of Michel Rolland. He was 78. Rolland was the original “flying winemaker,” a globe-trotting consultant who helped Bordeaux regain its mojo in the 1970s and then shaped the rise of Napa Valley cult Cabernet as consultant to Simi, Harlan, Newton, Screaming Eagle, Araujo, Dalle Valle and other wineries. He was instrumental in Argentina’s rise to prominence and even had his own winery, Clos de los Siete, in a partnership with other wine families. Rolland’s career arc paralleled that of Robert Parker, the world’s most influential critic. Parker championed many of the wines Rolland consulted on, helping build his reputation and demand for his services. It also made him a target for Parker’s critics. As W. Blake Gray wrote on Wine-Searcher in his excellent tribute to Rolland: Rolland created the type of wines Parker loved: rich body, plenty of fruit, soft tannins. He sometimes faced the accusation of creating a generic international style of red wine, where the great wines he made in Argentina were indistinguishable from the great wines he made in France. Rolland chafed at that critique, as did many of his fans. He was credited with championing green harvesting and leaf pulling, as well as careful selection of grapes in the winery, practices we nearly universally think of today for high-quality winemaking. “Michel was an incredible innovator who changed how wine was made and how grapes were grown,” Napa Valley winemaker Aaron Pott wrote on Facebook. “His work has transformed the wine trade. He created new ways of looking at wine, tasting wine, evaluating ripeness and quality. … This was not just a man with a ‘style’ that he imposed on vineyards but a man that understood how to make great wine from great sites.” Rolland started his consulting company in 1973 in Libourne, in Bordeaux, with his wife, Dany. Both had graduated the year before from Bordeaux’s Institute d’Oenologie. The couple sold their majority share in the business in 2020, according to Wine Spectator. Over his career, Rolland reportedly worked with more than 100 wineries in 20 countries. He even made it to Virginia, where he consulted for Kluge Estate in the mid-2000s. (Kluge Estate is now Trump Winery.) Reader feedback, please! Last week, I did my first WineLine Live! with Dr. Laura Catena of Catena Zapata winery in Argentina. We enjoyed a fascinating discussion about her efforts to preserve the genetic heritage of old vineyards in Mendoza. I conceived of WineLine Live! for paid subscribers, as a thank you for your financial support. And while only a few people joined live, the video now has more views than I have paid subscribers, so I guess that’s pretty good. Even so, I’m considering opening future installments to anyone on Substack to reach a broader audience. So my questions to you: Should these be public? And what format do you prefer? Live gives a chat feature with the potential for viewers to interact with me and the guest, while a video post would just be that. Another alternative is a podcast, which would just be audio, without video of my chins. Please let me know in the comments. Leave a comment In the Glass A few wines I’ve enjoyed recently: Bonny Doon Vineyard Take Me to Your Liter, Le Cigare Volant, Red Wine of the Earth. 2023, Central Coast, CA. Blend of Grenache, Syrah Cinsaut and Petite Sirah. Delightful wine with expressive red fruit flavors, casual drinking. Doon lovers of a certain age will remember Randall Grahm’s Big House Red; this is more in that style than his original Le Cigare Volant, modeled after Chateauneuf du Pape. The liter bottle makes it an even better value. I see this online at about $15. Great value. Albert Bichot Bourgogne Pinot Noir Origines 2023. 13% - Textbook pinot noir and an excellent, affordable entry (regional) Burgundy. Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Wines of 2025. $24 at Total Wine & More. Loma Larga Pinot Noir 2021 “Coastal Cool Climate Wine”, Valle de Casablanca, Chile. An older sample, showing beautifully. Spicy and fruit forward. I’m seeing widely varied pricing online, from $18-$32. At the lower end, it’s a terrific value. 13.5% Dr. Loosen Riesling Dry 2016, Mosel, Germany. Found this “in the stack.” And it stacked up well, shedding some of its youthful acidity for opulent Riesling character, including a hint of the mineral oil older Riesling often features. A great value, as I’m seeing it as low as $14 online. 12% abv. Red Tail Ridge Blau Franc Blend 2024, Sans Oak, Finger Lakes. 13.4% abv. The name is a neat portmanteau of Blaufrankisch and Cabernet Franc, thus Blau Franc. The blend is 50-50, no oak involved. The Blau dominates on the palate, with the spicy caraway seed (think New York deli rye bread). The Franc adds body. The result is juicy, energetic and joyful. Sokol Blosser Estate Rosé of Pinot Noir 2025, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon. This first rosé of 2025 was a welcome respite to our cold, snowy winter here in the Mid-Atlantic. Oh man, I needed this! Bright and energetic, exuberant even, it perks up the mood and goes down fast. 13%. Certified B Corp. Ingredient and nutrition labeling, and in a modest way that doesn’t occupy a lot of label space. (Since it’s not required, presumably there are no minimum font size requirements.) More wineries should follow this example. Dave McIntyre's WineLine is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Thanks for reading Dave McIntyre's WineLine! This post is public so feel free to share it. Share 1 Some restraint may be required. 2 Especially the bubblies.
Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame inducts 12 coaches, administrators in Class of 2026
Inductees selected from slate of 60 nominees.
Latest stats show stress and lack of physical activity are rising, putting heart health at risk
As people navigate higher levels of stress and spend more of their day sitting, finding time to move can feel challenging. Less than half of adults and fewer than one in five children in the U.S. get ...
When Religion Becomes Obsolete, Politics Tries to Save Us
When politics becomes our highest love, it will also become our cruelest disappointment, leaving our homes colder, our holidays lonelier, and our common life harder to sustain.
Scientists found a rhino in the Arctic and it changes everything
Scientists have uncovered a new species of rhinoceros in the Canadian High Arctic, revealing that rhinos once lived far farther north than expected. The fossil, dating back 23 million years, is unusually complete and has helped reshape ideas about how these animals migrated between continents. Evidence suggests rhinos crossed from Europe to North America more recently than scientists once thought.
Ecological and demographic drivers of Oropouche virus transmission
Nature Health - Nationwide analysis of 30,086 confirmed Oropouche virus cases in Brazil between 2014 and 2025 shows that rural municipalities had over 11-fold-higher incidence than urban areas and...
Segment: Financing Action on Extreme Heat and Maternal and Newborn Health: The Way Forward
The segment “Financing Action on Extreme Heat and Maternal and Newborn Health: The Way Forward” will examine how innovative and better-aligned financing approaches can respond to these growing risks. Discussions will highlight country experiences in mobilizing domestic resources, opportunities to unlock and scale climate finance, and the role of heat-smart innovations in building resilient health systems. Particular attention will be given to low- and middle-income countries, where exposure and vulnerability remain highest, and where integrated solutions can deliver the greatest impact.
UFL 2026: Joel Klatt, Curt Menefee Return To Headline FOX Broadcast Team
Joel Klatt and Curt Menefee will once again lead FOX Sports' broadcast coverage for the highly anticipated third season of the UFL.
NASA Data Hackathon Inspires Community Action
On Jan. 31, students, library staff, researchers, and community members gathered at the University of Florida’s (UF) Marston Science Library for the
The Best Restaurants to Book in Hong Kong Right Now
Highlights include a value restaurant specializing in premium Hanwoo beef and a new yakitori counter atop a skyscraper.
Science Through Shadows: How Astronomical Alignments Reveal the Universe
When one celestial object passes in front of another, it can cast a shadow that travels across space – and sometimes across Earth. These moments of alignment, known as eclipses, occultations, and transits, allow scientists to study distant objects in remarkable ways. By observing how light changes when an object briefly blocks another, astronomers can measure sizes and shapes, detect atmospheres, and refine the orbits of asteroids and planets.
While Intel Skipped Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, It Appeared At Geekbench With A Staggering 17% Higher Single And Multi-Core Score Than Ultra 9 285K
Intel's Core Ultra 9 290K Plus scores 3747 single-core and 26117 multi-core in Geekbench, showing a 17% performance boost over the 285K.
2nd Car Show Scheduled at Sangertown Square
Racing fans and families can check out high-performance cars and meet local drivers at the Mall Car Show at Sangertown Square.
Trump to Maria Bartiromo: Iran wants to make a deal badly, could be within 5 days or sooner
Maria Bartiromo reports that President Donald Trump says Iran ‘wants to make a deal badly’ as he orders a five-day pause on planned strikes against key infrastructure, signaling ongoing high-level talks and triggering a sharp market rebound.
Free sports physicals return for public school students in Flagler and Volusia counties
Thousands of middle and high school students in public schools across Volusia and Flagler counties can receive free sports physicals this spring as AdventHealth helps young athletes prepare safely for the upcoming season.
Here are nearly 100 local high school spring sports stars to watch
Spring sports are rich with talented athletes. From baseball to track and soccer to swimming, here are nearly 100 Fort Collins-area stars to watch.
Banijay Entertainment Dials Up Global Scripted with Premium Series Mania Slate
Media and entertainment powerhouse, Banijay Entertainment, today unveils its premium scripted offering for Series Mania, showcasing a broad range of high-end drama from across its global portfolio. As the number one European studio in scripted, with more than 100 titles launching each year, the company continues to demonstrate its scale, creative strength, global reach and […]
Palm Beach County high school sports weekly schedule for March 23-28
High school sports are back in full swing in Palm Beach County. See the full schedule for baseball, softball, lacrosse and more.
Brevard County high school sports weekly schedule, Week of March 23-29
Brevard County high school sports schedule for the week of March 23-29, 2026.
Fertilizer prices bring more pain for American farmers amid war in Iran
The war in Iran is pushing up prices for already-strained farmers, with higher costs for fertilizer and energy on top of last year’s tariffs. And the increasing pressure on American agriculture could lead to even bigger price tags at the grocery store.
Banijay Series Mania Slate: ‘A Woman of Substance,’ ‘Peaky Blinders’
Other highlights take in Jack Thorne’s ‘Falling,’ Richard Gadd’s ‘Half Man,’ ‘Wallander’ and Series Mania titles ‘Anatomy of a Moment’ and ‘Etty.’
Small swings, high drama: why UK polls are less volatile than they seem
In what is beginning to look like a fragmented five-party system, small swings carry outsized political consequences
Volunteer US and UK fighters in Ukraine face hidden health crises, new study suggests
Former soldiers who have served as volunteer fighters in Ukraine experience high levels of mental and physical health difficulties yet are rarely able to access the health care they need, either during ...
The Vogue Business Fall/Winter 2026 Size Inclusivity Report
Size inclusivity on the runway fell again this season, highlighting how far the industry still has to go.
Scholar Athlete of the Week: Andra Stokes, Stevens High School
KSAT 12 Sports and CHRISTUS Children’s shine a spotlight on a local senior student athlete
A DNA test ruled him out. He was convicted of murder anyway.
Forensics has its share of high-profile problems. There’s phony “junk science,” like bogus bite-mark and blood spatter analyses that have sent innocent people to jail. And there’s the steady drumbeat of lab scandals, where analysts make up results. But there’s a subtler and more pervasive problem at work in many cases: lab analysts and lawyers who take perfectly legitimate science and twist it. Globe Opinion is exploring these distortions with a series we’re calling “Twisted Science.” And there may be no better place to start than with the case of Terrel Barros.
Analyst reveals high expectations for 49ers after free agency spree
Could the 49ers really challenge in 2026?
Two-thirds of workers are burned out—here's what science says about how to tackle it
Burnout is at an all-time high, with some studies saying two-thirds of employees now cite job burnout as a major challenge. Overwork and chronic stress do not just drain energy, they can erode health, ...
UFL team signs former Alabama high school, Crimson Tide QB
The Thompson High School alumnus had been scheduled to play in the Indoor Football League on Sunday.
Educational Service Center awarded Teach Computer Science 2.0 Grant
The Educational Service Center of the Western Reserve has been awarded $584,614 through the Ohio Teach Computer Science 2.0 State Grant, a competitive initiative funded by the Ohio Department of Higher Education. As part of an $8 million…
The Times' top 25 high school baseball rankings
St. John Bosco and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame remain unbeaten in high school baseball
Your Thymus and Your Healthspan
Our thymus gland plays a central role in the development or our immune system, specifically for supporting T cell development (how these cells got their name, maturation and differentiation in the thymus) and discriminating between self and foreign, non-self antigen proteins with production of dendritic cells. As we age, our thymus gland shrinks—the process known as involution—with progressive change from spongy to fatty tissue, with loss of functionality. But this process, with respect to timeline and extent, markedly varies from one person to the next. And to make things even more complicated, our thymus gland anatomy and precise location in the chest also is highly variable. So the famous Frank Netter diagrams from the 1960s (such as at left below) don’t capture the remarkable heterogeneity that a random set of 12 chest CT scans (below at right). What I consider as 2 landmark papers in Nature this week (here and here) used AI to quantify health of the thymus in 2 large cohorts, and then correlate the metric to a broad array of health outcomes. In this edition of Ground Truths, I’m going to cover three questions: (1) How was thymus health determined by AI?; (2) How is thymus health linked to key clinical outcomes? and (3) Are there ways we can promote a healthy (aka rejuvenate) thymus gland in our later years? Subscribe 1. How was thymus health determined by AI? This was accomplished by extensive work developing and validating an AI pipeline for 2 stages, the first for localization and segmentation of the thymus bed, and the second to quantify a digital marker, termed the thymic health score. There’s a lot to this algorithmic development, so I won’t go into all the details, but just provide a rudimentary outline of what was done. The 1st stage used supervised learning with 2 radiologists reviewing 2,461 chest CT scans. That work trained a 3D U-Net model to automatically identify the thymic bed’s 3D cropped region using center of mass coordinates, which reached 99.8% accuracy. The 2nd stage used a foundation model that was pre-trained with SwAV (which stands for Swapping Assignment between multiple Views), a self-supervised model, that generated a high-dimensional thymus representation of 4,096 features. That compares to the radiology reductionist and subjective scoring of 0 to 3 where 0 means the thymus is fully degenerated and fatty, and 3 is considered dense, intact glandular soft tissue. Notably, the self-supervised learning (SSL) performance was superior to supervised (AUC ~0.75 vs 0.55, respectively) reflecting the shallowness of the 0-3 classifier vs SSL’s holistic, self-taught AI. The thymic health score ranged from 0 to 100, with the highest number indexed to fully preserved thymic health. The algorithmic work extended to explainability with both Shapely value distribution, meaning the model was holistic not relying on any “magic” pixel, and occlusion sensitivity, demonstrating the model’s performance was not affected by ribs, sternum, lung tissue, but rather focused on the thymic bed directly. Below are a few saliency maps from the occlusion sensitivity that indicate the thymic bed focus, not affected by neighboring structures, using the jet color scale. Now the AI was ready for processing ~25,000 CT scans, each over 30 MB files, from the 2 large participant cohorts to provide a thymic health score, it did so in less than 14 hours, which is less than 2 seconds per scan! Share 2. How is thymus health linked to key clinical outcomes? The two cohorts were the National Lung Screening Trial, NLST (N=25,031) and the Framingham Heart Study, FHS (N=2,581) each with baseline demographics and long term follow up of >12 years for health outcomes. From the NSLT, you can see below that increased age and body-mass index were correlated to reduced thymic health. And, overall, men had reduced thymic health scores compared with women. There are a lot of graphs in the paper for outcomes, for both the NLST and FHS cohorts. To simplify the major outcomes, below is a composite Figure with striking reduction of all-cause mortality and for the different causes of death. The results were consistent between the 2 cohorts. For example, the cardiovascular mortality hazard ratio average was 0.57 in NLST and 0.38 in FHS (weighted to be 0.53 for the aggregate). The reduction of mortality also extended to digestive diseases and pulmonary disease (data not shown below). Lung cancer incidence was reduced by 36% for high vs low thymic health (Figure below, with a panel -incidence and b panel-mortality, adjusted for age, sex, BMI, smoking status). Notably, there was a smoker’s paradox: lower incidence and improved survival for lung cancer in smokers who had a high thymus health score. Smoking was associated with lower thymic scores whereas alcohol was not. Higher thymic health was linked to higher HDL cholesterol, lower triglycerides, lower fasting blood glucose, and lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Inflammation biomarkers, such as C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, were elevated in the people with lower thymic health scores. In their second paper, the same team looked at the relationship between thymic score and outcomes for 3,476 patients receiving cancer immunotherapy. The non-small cell lung cancer progression-free survival was reduced in patients with low thymic health score. A parallel relationship for survival was seen for other types of cancer including melanoma, breast, and kidney with a 44% lower risk among high thymic scores (Figure). A similar pattern was seen with different immune checkpoint inhibitors. The thymus health score outperformed programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1)and tumor mutation burden (TMB) assay of the tumor and was an independent prognostic marker of progression-free survival. In this dataset, a direct connect with thymus score and adaptive immune function was noted with a correlation before cancer treatment for both T-cell diversity and thymus T-cell production (a metric known as T cell receptor excision circles). Thymus Removal Study There is a highly relevant citation about thymus function before moving onto ways to rejuvenate it. In 2023, a very important study of thymus removal during cardiothoracic surgery was published, with 1146 patients undergoing thymus removal vs 1146 matched controls (mean age 55 years). The adverse outcomes for thymus removal were striking, with a 2.9 higher risk of all-cause mortality and doubling of cancer incidence, 1.5 fold increase in cancer mortality, and 1.5-fold increase in autoimmune diseases. The immune function showed marked compromise after thymus removal, as reflected by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells (Figure below) Share Ground Truths 3. Are there ways we can promote a healthy (aka rejuvenate) thymus gland in our later years? In recent months we’ve learned a lot about the process of thymus involution and the pathways by which this may be modulated. Thymus involution is primarily due to loss to thymus epithelial cells (TECs) and there are 2 subtypes with different functions: the cortical, responsible for positive selection of T cells, and the medullary, for negative selection. When adipose tissue infiltrates the thymus, thymic adipocytes are pro-inflammatory, knocking out T-cell output. Likewise, systemic inflammation, or “inflammaging,” from smoking, obesity, and chronic stress promote thymic adipocytes. Now, from preclinical studies, we know about key pathways that account for these processes. Historically, back in 2014, FOXN1 was recognized as a single master transcription factor essential for TEC function, with studies in mice with forced FOXN1 upregulation leading to thymus regeneration. That laid the foundation for potential regrowth of quiescent thymus cells. It took awhile to find pathways to accomplish this goal and to even refute its role as the master regulator. The Liver-Thymus Axis Feng Zhang and his team recently showed that injection of an mRNA vaccine to the liver encoding DLL1, IL-7 and FLT3-L in combination, factors known to support thymopoiesis (Figure), successfully enhanced immune function in aged mice. However, the effect was transient. The FGF21 Story Two reports in 2025 addressed the thymus gland’s production of FGF21, a growth factor (fibroblast growth factor 21) and its control of thymus involution. This growth factor is also produced by the liver, but it doesn’t have impact on the thymus in aged rodent models. In contrast, The liver’s hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) has been shown to reverse senescent TEC structural changes. Growth hormone stimulates production of insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in the liver and the thymus. Two small studies in human participants (TRIIM, for Thymus Regeneration, Immunorestoration, and Insulin Mitigation) of 6 and 50 people, respectively, treated with combined human growth hormone, metformin and DHEA, suggested the potential of slowing epigenetic aging and improving thymus mass and function. But the combination of drugs, small sample, and lack of controls make conclusions murky. Increased thymus FGF21 led to increased CD8 T cells in old mice and extended healthspan and improved physical performance. Building on the previous FOXN1 data, ablation of β-klotho, the obligatory co-receptor for FOXN1, accelerated thymic aging. The benefit to FGF21 was confirmed in a companion paper using an FGF21 knock-in mouse model showing thymus enlargement and increased TECs throughout the lifespan. (schematic Figure below). The accompanying editorial for these 2 papers speculated: “The proposed link between age-associated thymus involution and organismal aging is intriguing, and suggests we might seek to achieve systemic rejuvenation by counteracting thymic involution.” Other Factors Lessons from the Axolotl (Mexican Salamander) In an elegant set of experiments of the axolotl (Figure), known for its complete thymus regeneration after total surgical removal, mediators were identified. Surprisingly FOXN1 was dispensable. But midkine, a growth factor, appeared to be the driver, the initiator of thymus cell growth, survival, and repair. Other components that contributed were Postn+ (periostin-expressing mesenchymal niches) and Ccl19, a chemokine protein from the bloodstream. RANK and RANKL RANK (receptor activator of nuclear factor κB its ligand (RANKL) have been considered key regulators of medullary TECs. In a study of both aged mice and human thymus cell cultures, their key role was confirmed, with multiple benefits of resorting TEC function, recruitment of progenitor cells, and T cell development. Subscribe Summing Up This body of work strongly supports the health of the thymus gland as a critical regulator of human healthspan, not just a correlate or link. The new landmark studies are reinforced by the regenerative biology experimental models that have shown, via an array of mediators, that healthspan of aged mice is at least in part dependent on thymus gland function and its critical role for maintaining adaptive immunity. It sure seems that we’d be better off having an immune reservoir of naive T cells instead of a profile in older adults of exhausted, low quality, memory T cells, with a senescent phenotype. It is striking that we ignored the importance of the thymus gland for many decades. A wake-up call was the results of the thymectomy matched control study reviewed here, with the opposite of high thymic health score improved health outcomes. The convergence of AI and healthspan here is notable. The exceptional and laborious work for developing and validating (no less explaining) the AI to quantify thymus health set the foundation for probing the connect the major health outcomes in two cohorts with extensive follow-up. We’ve never had a way to meaningfully quantify the thymus gland before, so this represents important leverage of supervised, self-supervised, and transformer models. The study wouldn’t have been possible without AI. And it begs the question as to whether there are ways we can maintain our thymus at a high health score. But it’s not so simple to rejuvenate our thymus. There are multiple risks including the induction of autoimmunity, increasing the risk of cancer, and inducing a pro-inflammatory state. For example, factors that increase TEC proliferation could compromise the medulllary negative selection process and leak out auto-reactive (self-attacking) T cells. Thymic cells could be induced to proliferate, but we know, for example, that growth hormone and IGF-1 are associated with an increase risk of cancer. If thymus rejuvenation doesn’t clear out the accumulated senescent cells in older adults, then inflammation within the gland could block the production of TECs. Keeping these risks in mind, we now have identified many ways to keep our thymus healthy as we age that undoubtedly will be tested in clinical trials going forward. Ultimately, the benefit-to-risk tradeoffs will be defined. In the meantime, we have desperately needed an immunome. As I’ve stressed in multiple prior Ground Truths, we have no test in the clinic to assess a patient’s immune status! It was very encouraging for me to get an email from Hugo Aerts, the senior author of the landmark papers in the days after they were published: “I also wanted to say that your Substack on “Why We Need an Immunome” was inspiring for this work. We found it a very compelling perspective and greatly enjoyed reading it.” Just having an assessment of a person’s immune status via a chest CT scan, with millions of these performed per year, might help in guiding the right immunotherapy for cancer (e.g. more intensive, combinations for those with low thymic health scores) and help define people who are increased risk for age-related diseases of cancer, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative. The main theme of Super Agers is that we now have many layers of data (genetics, proteins, biomarkers, organ clocks that can be integrated via multimodal AI) for us to define a person’s specific risk decades before one of these age-related diseases leads to symptoms, enabling prevention. From the new studies this week, we can add thymus health score as yet another way to understand a person’s risk, a window into their adaptive immune system and healthspan. And perhaps someday we will be able to safely rejuvenate the thymus, or maintain its health through one’s life, and use the thymus health score to monitor. NB: I wrote this post (No A.I.) A Quick Poll Loading... ********************************************************************* Thanks to Ground Truths subscribers (now > 200,000) from every US state and 212 countries. Your subscription to these free essays and podcasts makes my work in putting them together worthwhile. Please join! If you found this interesting PLEASE share it! Share Ground Truths Paid subscriptions are voluntary and all proceeds from them go to support Scripps Research. They do allow for posting comments and questions, which I do my best to respond to. Please don’t hesitate to post comments and give me feedback. Let me know topics that you would like to see covered. Leave a comment Many thanks to those who have contributed—they have greatly helped fund our summer internship programs for the past two years. It enabled us to accept and support 47 summer interns in 2025! We aim to accept even more of the several thousand who will apply for summer 2026.
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