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. Genetics

    When flowers died out in Arctic, so did mammoths

    Genetic analysis finds vegetation change in the Arctic around same time as megafauna extinction.

  2. Genetics

    Bacteria can be genetically tricked into self-destructing

    Manipulating microbes’ defenses could lead to targeted antibiotics.

  3. Genetics

    Monkeys born with edited genes

    A DNA-snipping technique inspired by bacteria shows therapeutic promise.

  4. Life

    A little acid or a tight squeeze can turn a cell stemlike

    Stresses send mouse cells into primordial state capable of making any tissue.

  5. Genetics

    Stone Age Spaniard had blue eyes, dark skin

    Genetics of 7,000-year-old skeleton suggests blond hair, pale skin came later.

  6. Life

    How to tell good gut microbes from bad

    Researchers sort out influences of specific bacteria on body fat, the immune system.

  7. Life

    Pigment pas de deux puts stripes on zebrafish

    Interactions between color-producing cells generate patterns on fish fins.

  8. Life

    Marine microbes shed packets of DNA, nutrients

    The world’s most abundant marine microorganism, the photosynthetic bacteria Prochlorococcus, spits out nutrient-rich vesicles into ocean waters, perhaps for genetic exchange or as a survival mechanism.

  9. Microbes

    Me and my microbiome

    Tina Hesman Saey tries out new services offering clients a peek at their own bacteria.

  10. Life

    Deadly influenza could strike aboriginal groups hardest

    Native Alaskans and Australians tend to lack potent flu-fighting immune cells.

  11. Microbes

    The vast virome

    When it comes to the microbiome, bacteria get all the press. But virologists are starting to realize that their subjects also do a lot more than make people sick.

  12. Life

    Year in Review: Gift of steroids keeps on giving

    Mouse muscles stay juiced long after doping ends.