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

    Microscapes take off at D.C’s Dulles airport

    “Life: Magnified,” a display of microscope images depicting cells, microbes and details of life invisible to the naked eye runs from June to November.

  2. Life

    Fiber optics in mammals’ eyes separate colors

    Specialized cells in the retina separate different wavelengths of light to enable sharp vision during the day without harming night vision.

  3. Life

    Dramatic retraction adds to questions about stem cell research

    Researchers who reported an easy method for making stem cells admit mistakes mar their work, and have retracted their papers from Nature.

  4. Life

    Tibetans live high life thanks to extinct human relatives

    DNA shared by modern-day Tibetans and extinct Denisovans suggests people picked up helpful genes through interbreeding with other hominids.

  5. Life

    Stem cell papers retracted

    Researchers who reported easy method for making stem cells admit mistakes mar their work, and have retracted their papers from Nature.

  6. Life

    Near reefs, microbial mix dictated by coral and algae

    A reef’s dominant organism, coral or algae, may determine what kind of bacteria live there.

  7. Life

    HIV hides in growth-promoting genes

    The discovery that HIV can trigger infected cells to divide means scientists may need to rethink strategies for treating the virus that causes AIDS.

  8. Life

    Autoimmune diseases stopped in mice

    Reprogramming immune cells may offer a way to treat autoimmune diseases without harming the body’s ability to fight infections.

  9. Genetics

    Gene variant tied to diabetes in Greenlanders

    Greenlanders who carry two copies of a newly discovered gene variant have upwards of 10 times the chance of developing type 2 diabetes.

  10. Life

    Avian flu could strike Asian poultry markets outside China

    H7N9 influenza has a higher chance of spreading to humans in urban areas close to water, researchers predict.

  11. Genetics

    Chimp and human lineages may have split twice as long ago as thought

    New estimates of chimpanzee mutation rates suggest humans and chimps last shared a common ancestor 13 million years ago.

  12. Life

    Oxytocin stimulates repair of old mice’s muscles

    The naturally produced hormone oxytocin, well known for its role in social bonding, may help heal injured muscles in the elderly.