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

    Rare genetic tweaks may not be behind common diseases

    Variants thought to be behind inherited conditions prove difficult to pin down.

  2. Buzzword bingo

    Game brings entertainment to genetics meeting.

  3. Life

    A little radiation is good for mice

    Low doses of radioactivity led to healthier pups.

  4. Life

    Cancer cells self-destruct in blind mole rats

    Underground rodents evolved a way to zap mutating tissue.

  5. Life

    Across 1,000 genomes, rarities abound

    Number of infrequent genetic variants reflects human population explosion and geographic diversity.

  6. Genetics

    Cloning-like method targets mitochondrial diseases

    Providing healthy ‘power plants’ in donor egg cells appears feasible in humans, a new study finds.

  7. Life

    Fasting hormone helps mice live longer

    A protein can trick the body into entering starvation mode.

  8. Microbes

    Protecting the planet

    Catharine “Cassie” Conley has the coolest job title at NASA: She’s the agency’s planetary protection officer. (The best title used to be “director of the universe,” but a reconfiguration a few years back eliminated that job description, she says.)

  9. Life

    Nouveaux Antennas

    A single hairlike appendage may allow a cell to sense the outside world

  10. Genetics

    Genetic mutations may explain a brain cancer’s tenacity

    DNA damage may transform adult cells in glioblastoma, making the malignancy harder to kill.

  11. Life

    Thyroid in a dish

    Stem cells assemble themselves into a working gland.

  12. Life

    Research in cell communication system wins 2012 chemistry Nobel

    G protein-coupled receptors relay messages from other cells and the environment into the cell's interior.