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

    Across 1,000 genomes, rarities abound

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

  2. Genetics

    Cloning-like method targets mitochondrial diseases

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

  3. Life

    Fasting hormone helps mice live longer

    A protein can trick the body into entering starvation mode.

  4. 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.)

  5. Life

    Nouveaux Antennas

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

  6. Genetics

    Genetic mutations may explain a brain cancer’s tenacity

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

  7. Life

    Thyroid in a dish

    Stem cells assemble themselves into a working gland.

  8. 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.

  9. Life

    2012 medicine Nobel honors research on reprogramming adult cells

    John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka share this year's prize.

  10. Life

    Mouse stem cells yield viable eggs

    Japanese scientists’ technical feat might provide new insights about protecting and extending human fertility.

  11. Science & Society

    Misconduct prompts most retractions

    Two-thirds of scientific papers pulled from journals are for fraud, suspected fraud and plagiarism.

  12. Life

    Breast cancer gets genetic profile

    Insights from new data may help improve treatment for some types of disease.