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

    Age isn’t just a number

    Getting old happens faster for some, and the reason may be in the blood.

  2. Genetics

    Why mammoths loved the cold

    An altered temperature sensor helped mammoths adapt to the cold.

  3. Life

    Genetic tweak hints at why mammoths loved the cold

    An altered temperature sensor helped mammoths adapt to the cold.

  4. Life

    How vitamin B12 makes pimples pop up

    Vitamin B12 causes acne by altering metabolism of skin bacteria.

  5. Life

    Twisty chains of proteins keep cells oriented

    The counterclockwise twist of protein fibers jutting out from the edge of human cells allow the cells to distinguish right from left.

  6. Genetics

    A circadian clock transplant gives E. coli rhythm

    Clockworks from algae built into E. coli may hold future jet lag treatment.

  7. Life

    A protein variant can provide protection from deadly brain-wasting

    If cannibalism hadn’t stopped, a protective protein may have ended kuru anyway.

  8. Life

    MERS virus didn’t morph in its move to South Korea

    No obvious changes in the MERS virus account for its rapid spread in South Korea.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Deadly MERS spreads in small cluster in South Korea

    Thirty people have MERS virus in the South Korean outbreak, including China’s first case.

  10. Genetics

    White House hits pause on editing human germline cells

    The White House has hit pause, for now, on clinical experiments that could alter the human germ line.

  11. Genetics

    Genes and environment balance each other

    Genes and environment have equal influence on human traits.

  12. Genetics

    A billion years of evolution doesn’t change some genes

    Human genes can substitute for 47 percent of essential genes in baker’s yeast, new research shows.