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

    Experimental vaccine protects against many flu viruses

    Ferrets that receive shot can fight off variety of influenza strains.

  2. Life

    Viruses and mucus team up to ward off bacteria

    Phages may play an unforeseen role in immune protection, researchers find.

  3. Humans

    Highlights from the Biology of Genomes meeting

    Highlights from the genome biology meeting held May 7-11 in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., include an enormous tree's enormous genome, genes for strong-swimming sperm, and back-to-Africa migration some 3,000 years ago.

  4. Animals

    Tamed fox shows domestication’s effects on the brain

    Gene activity changes accompany doglike behavior in foxes bred over more than 50 years.

  5. Life

    How a sea anemone grows its tentacles

    Creature's cells change shape to form appendages.

  6. Life

    Genetic fossils betray hepatitis B’s ancient roots

    Modern bird genomes reveal evidence that virus is at least 82 million years old.

  7. Life

    Mutation makes H5N1 flu lose its grip

    Laboratory-added genetic change makes avian influenza unable to bind to bird cells.

  8. Humans

    Spreading a scientific way of life

    The Science Life.

  9. Life

    Coelacanth is not closest fishy relative of terrestrial animals

    Genes of “living fossil” do reveal changes needed to live on dry land.

  10. Life

    New bird flu claims more victims

    H7N9 influenza spreads to Beijing, may come from poultry and pigeons.

  11. Life

    New flu in China reveals its avian origins

    H7N9 influenza genes came from three bird viruses.

  12. Life

    Eye drops reduce signs of macular degeneration in mice

    Targeting cholesterol in retina stops rogue blood vessel growth often seen in the vision disease.