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

    Eye drops reduce signs of macular degeneration in mice

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

  2. Health & Medicine

    Bird flu infects three in China

    The H7N9 influenza virus has sickened three people, killing two, in first known human infections.

  3. Life

    Gut microbes may be behind weight loss after gastric bypass

    Mice slim down after receiving bacteria transplanted from rodents that had the surgery.

  4. Life

    Longhorn cattle ancestors came from Pakistan

    New World breeds trace back to both major bovine lineages, genetic analysis shows.

  5. A genetic exhibitionist

    The Science Life.

  6. Genetics

    From Great Grandma to You

    Epigenetic changes reach down through the generations.

  7. Life

    Giant squid population is one big happy species

    Elusive deep ocean dwellers have low genetic diversity despite living around the globe.

  8. Life

    Bedbugs raise genetic defense against pesticides

    Bedbugs turn on several genes, in both their shells and their nerve cells, to stave off effects of insecticides.

  9. Life

    New virus uses protein handle to infect cells

    Deadly coronavirus related to SARS attaches to protein on cells unlike the one SARS uses.

  10. Life

    Tasmanian devil disease reveals its secrets

    The contagious cancer evades the animal’s immune system by turning off key genes.

  11. Life

    Alga borrows genes to beat the heat, acid and toxic metals

    Such genetic theft from bacteria and archaea is unusual among eukaryotes.

  12. Life

    Mice get brain boost from transplanted human tissue

    An experimental transplant of what have long been considered just support cells shows they may play a role in memory and learning.