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. Science & Society

    Year in Review: High court rules against gene patents

    The justices’ decision opens the way for choices in DNA testing.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Year in Review: Sleep clears the cluttered brain

    Some forms of brain washing are good, like the thorough hosing the brain gets during sleep.

  3. Life

    Year in Review: A double dose of virus scares

    Outbreaks of two deadly viruses captured the world’s attention in 2013, but neither turned into the global pandemic expected to strike one of these years.

  4. Life

    Year in Review: Your body is mostly microbes

    Microbiome results argue for new view of animals as superorganisms.

  5. Life

    Solving the mystery of Alzheimer’s start

    Molecular evildoers team up to launch neural destruction.

  6. Life

    Chronic wounds may succumb to vitamins

    In mice, antioxidants fight diabetic sores.

  7. Life

    Nicotine may damage arteries

    Other chemicals in cigarettes may not be to blame.

  8. Life

    Dietary changes affect gut microbes within a day

    Menu restricted to meat, egg and cheese alters bacterial mix more than eating only plants.

  9. Life

    Autism may have link to chemicals made by gut microbes

    Beneficial bacteria improved abnormal behaviors in mice with altered intestines.

  10. Genetics

    Evolution of venom, binge eating seen in snake DNA

    Python and cobra genes evolved quickly to enable hunting strategies.

  11. Life

    Chemotherapy needs gut bacteria to work

    Antibiotics may prevent anticancer drugs from killing tumors.

  12. Genetics

    Ancient Siberian bones clarify Native American origins

    Some New World ancestors came from western Eurasia, not East Asia.