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. Life

    Hybrids reveal the barriers to successful mating between species

    Scientists don’t understand the process of speciation, but hybrids can reveal the genes that keep species apart.

  2. Genetics

    New CRISPR gene editors can fix RNA and DNA one typo at a time

    New gene editors can correct common typos that lead to disease.

  3. Genetics

    Inbreeding hurts the next generation’s reproductive success

    Inbreeding has evolutionary consequences for humans.

  4. Genetics

    Mating with Neandertals reintroduced ‘lost’ DNA into modern humans

    Neandertal DNA brought back some old genetic heirlooms to modern humans.

  5. Genetics

    Resurrecting extinct species raises ethical questions

    'Rise of the Necrofauna' examines the technical and ethical challenges of bringing woolly mammoths and other long-gone creatures back from the dead.

  6. Genetics

    Doubling up on ‘junk DNA’ helps make us human

    DNA duplicated only in humans may contribute to human traits and disease.

  7. Life

    Gut fungi might be linked to obesity and inflammatory bowel disorders

    Fungi are overlooked contributors to health and disease.

  8. Genetics

    We’re more Neandertal than we thought

    Neandertals contributed more to human traits than previously thought.

  9. Life

    KC Huang probes basic questions of bacterial life

    A physicist by training, Kerwyn Casey Huang tries to understand cell shape, movement and growth.

  10. Life

    Cracking the body clock code wins trio a Nobel Prize

    Circadian clock researchers take home the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

  11. Life

    Body clock mechanics wins U.S. trio the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine

    The cellular mechanisms governing circadian rhythms was a Nobel Prize‒winning discover for three Americans.

  12. Genetics

    A mutation may explain the sudden rise in birth defects from Zika

    A mutation in a protein that helps Zika exit cells may play a big role in microcephaly.