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

    A mouse’s metabolism may follow circadian rhythms set by gut bacteria

    While animals’ circadian clocks control functions from sleep to hormone release, gut bacteria dictate when mice’s small intestines take up fat.

  2. Life

    Losing genes may have helped whales’ ancestors adapt to life under the sea

    Jettisoning genes tied to saliva and the lungs, among others, could have smoothed ancient cetaceans’ land-to-water transition 50 million years ago.

  3. Humans

    Alcohol-producing bacteria could cause liver disease in some people

    A majority of patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease also had gut bacteria churning out medium to high levels of ethanol.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Mucus prevents hand sanitizers from quickly killing the flu

    Flu viruses can hold out for minutes against ethanol when encased in wet mucus.

  5. Health & Medicine

    50 years ago, polio was still circulating in the United States

    The world has never been closer to eradicating polio, but the disease could come roaring back where vaccination is spotty.

  6. Genetics

    There’s no evidence that a single ‘gay gene’ exists

    Many genetic factors with small effects combine with one’s environment to influence sexual behavior, researchers say.

  7. Life

    CRISPR enters its first human clinical trials

    The gene editor will be used in lab dishes in cancer and blood disorder trials, and to directly edit a gene in human eyes in a blindness therapy test.

  8. Life

    Why people with celiac disease suffer so soon after eating gluten

    In people with celiac disease, some T cells release immune chemicals within hours of encountering gluten, triggering the fast onset of symptoms.

  9. Life

    Immune system defects seem to contribute to obesity in mice

    Subtle defects affecting T cells altered the animals’ microbiome and fat absorption, providing hints of what might also be going on in people.

  10. Life

    This is the first fungus known to host complex algae inside its cells

    In the lab, an alga and a fungus teamed up to exchange food, similar to lichens. But instead of staying outside, the alga moved into the fungal cells.

  11. Neuroscience

    Boosting a gut bacterium helps mice fight an ALS-like disease

    Gut bacteria may alter ALS symptoms for good or ill.

  12. Genetics

    This gene may help worms live longer, but not healthier

    Antiaging therapies may have trade-offs, research on worms suggests.