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

    Jet lag affects gut microbes

    Jet-lagged bacteria in the gut impair mice’s metabolism, causing obesity and diabetes-related problems.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Ebola continues rapid spread in West Africa

    Ebola continues to spread in West Africa, but some countries are poised to declare victory over the deadly virus.

  3. Genetics

    Yeast smell underpins partnership with fruit flies

    Yeast make fruity aromas that draw flies, which disperse the fungi. Researchers reveal the gene that underpins the mutually beneficial relationship.

  4. Life

    Vagina bacteria make molecules that could be drugs

    Microbes on the human body are capable of producing thousands of small molecules that hold potential as drugs.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Clinical trial reanalyses may alter who should get treated

    Reanalyses of clinical trial data sometimes lead to different treatment suggestions.

  6. Genetics

    Molecular biologist honors ancient bones

    After deciphering an ancient skeleton’s genetic secrets, molecular biologist Sarah Anzick helped reinter the remains.

  7. Genetics

    Source of coffee’s kick found in its genetic code

    Coffee doubled up on caffeine-making genes. Those genes evolved independently from similar ones found in tea and chocolate plants.

  8. Genetics

    Ebola genome clarifies origins of West African outbreak

    Genetic analyses suggest that a single infected person sparked the ongoing Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

  9. Life

    New gut-dwelling virus is surprisingly common

    It’s not clear yet whether the bacteriophage crAssphage, found in people’s intestines, has any health effects.

  10. Genetics

    Long before Columbus, seals brought tuberculosis to South America

    Evidence from the skeletons of ancient Peruvians shows that seals may have brought tuberculosis across an ocean from Africa.

  11. Humans

    Antibiotics in infancy may cause obesity in adults

    By altering the microbiome of infant mice, drugs predisposed the animals to gain fat as adults.

  12. Life

    Animal source of Ebola outbreak eludes scientists

    Researchers are trying to determine whether bats or bush meat transmitted the Ebola virus to people in West Africa.