Tina Hesman Saey

Tina Hesman Saey

Senior Writer, Molecular Biology

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.

All Stories by Tina Hesman Saey

  1. Health & Medicine

    CRISPR-edited immune cells for fighting cancer passed a safety test

    Immune cells engineered with CRISPR to fight cancer made some errors, but caused no serious side effects in participants of a small clinical trial.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Scientists question White House measures to limit spread of coronavirus

    The White House announced new steps to fight the coronavirus outbreak, in what’s becoming one of the biggest public health challenges in decades.

  3. Health & Medicine

    The first case of coronavirus being spread by a person with no symptoms has been found

    Coronavirus cases among coworkers in Germany suggest that the virus can spread from person to person before symptoms appear, similar to the flu.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Can the coronavirus outbreak be contained?

    More than 50 million people are quarantined in China, but whether the strategy will stem the epidemic’s spread is unclear.

  5. Health & Medicine

    How the new coronavirus stacks up against SARS and MERS

    Coronaviruses are a diverse family that may be becoming more threatening to people.

  6. Life

    How bacteria create flower art

    Different types of microbes growing in lab dishes can push each other to make floral patterns.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Hairy cells in the nose called brush cells may be involved in causing allergies

    Some hairy cells in the nose may trigger sneezing and allergies to dust mites, mold and other substances, new work with mice suggests.

  8. Microbes

    Microbes slowed by one drug can rapidly develop resistance to another

    Hunkering down in a dormant, tolerant state may make it easier for infectious bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotics.

  9. Health & Medicine

    A bioethicist says scientists owe clinical trial volunteers support

    Researchers should be aware that many insurance policies do not cover experimental procedures, including side effects that may happen afterward.

  10. Genetics

    The first U.S. trials in people put CRISPR to the test in 2019

    Trials of the gene editor in people began in the United States this year, a first step toward fulfilling the technology’s medical promise.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Surplus chromosomes may fuel tumor growth in some cancers

    Extra copies of some genes on excess chromosomes may keep cancer cells growing. Without those extras, cancer cells form fewer tumors in mice.

  12. Animals

    A biochemist’s extraction of data from honey honors her beekeeper father

    Tests of proteins in honey could one day be used to figure out what bees are pollinating and which pathogens they carry.