When a parent gets sick and has a temporary reduction in parental care, how does this affect offspring? PhD student Sarah Wolf is working on this question, focusing specifically on how a mild immunological stressor administered to a female bird affects her offspring. Sarah has found that chicks of challenged moms have dampened stress reactivity and modified cellular aging (i.e. changes in telomere dynamics), and male and female chicks are differentially sensitive to these maternal stressors. Sarah is working now to understand (i) how these effects are regulated in the brain and body, (ii) how long they endure, and (ii) why some mothers are more sensitive to stressors than others.