
Senior writer Tina Hesman Saey is a geneticist-turned-science writer who covers all things microscopic and a few too big to be viewed under a microscope. She is an honors graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she did research on tobacco plants and ethanol-producing bacteria. She spent a year as a Fulbright scholar at the Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany, studying microbiology and traveling. Her work on how yeast turn on and off one gene earned her a Ph.D. in molecular genetics at Washington University in St. Louis. Tina then rounded out her degree collection with a master’s in science journalism from Boston University. She interned at the Dallas Morning News and Science News before returning to St. Louis to cover biotechnology, genetics and medical science for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. After a seven year stint as a newspaper reporter, she returned to Science News. Her work has been honored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the Endocrine Society, the Genetics Society of America and by journalism organizations.

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All Stories by Tina Hesman Saey
- Health & Medicine
Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine is effective, but less so with some variants
Novavax’s vaccine fends off the original coronavirus and a U.K. variant, but had more trouble with a South Africa variant.
- Genetics
Some identical twins don’t have identical DNA
Mutations arising early in development may account for genetic differences between identical twins.
- Health & Medicine
The FDA has authorized Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Now what?
It’s the first to win emergency use approval in the United States.
- Health & Medicine
Experts recommend the FDA approve Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use
Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine is one step closer to emergency use authorization in the United States.
- Health & Medicine
Here’s what you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccines
There are still important unknowns about how Pfizer’s vaccine and others will work once they get injected in people around the world.
- Health & Medicine
The ‘last mile’ for COVID-19 vaccines could be the biggest challenge yet
The need for cold storage and booster shots could create problems for distributing coronavirus vaccines to nearly everyone in the world.
- Health & Medicine
The U.K. is the first country to authorize a fully tested COVID-19 vaccine
Pfizer will deliver the first of 40 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine promised to the United Kingdom in the coming days.
- Health & Medicine
Oxford and AstraZeneca say their COVID-19 vaccine works too
A third major vaccine, which may be easier to distribute than others, appears to prevent disease and maybe transmission of the coronavirus.
- Health & Medicine
Here’s why COVID-19 vaccines like Pfizer’s need to be kept so cold
Both Pfizer and Moderna built their vaccines on RNA. Freezing them keeps their fragile components from breaking down.
- Health & Medicine
New Pfizer results show its COVID-19 vaccine is nearly 95% effective
With final results – including showing its vaccine is 94 percent effective in the elderly – Pfizer is poised to request emergency use authorization.
- Health & Medicine
Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing. Here’s what it will take to gain control
Basic public health measures can still curb COVID-19, if everyone does their part.
- Health & Medicine
How two immune system chemicals may trigger COVID-19’s deadly cytokine storms
A study in mice hints at drugs that could be helpful in treating severe coronavirus infections.