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

    Underground resistance

    Cave bacteria’s ability to fight antibiotics predates human-made drugs.

  2. Life

    Genes are no crystal ball for disease risk

    For most conditions, knowing a person’s entire genetic makeup won’t help predict his or her medical history.

  3. Life

    Old cancer drugs offer new tricks

    Drugs that reboot genetic programming make tumor cells more susceptible to cancer-killing therapy.

  4. Life

    The yin and yang of male pattern baldness

    The discovery of a hormone-like molecule in the scalp may offer new clues for treating baldness.

  5. Life

    Antibody may explain collagen’s undoing

    A newly discovered process could help account for the destruction that rheumatoid arthritis causes.

  6. Life

    Geneticists go ape for better primate family tree

    The first gorilla genome and a more detailed look at chimp genetics provide new clues to evolution of humans and their closest relatives.

  7. Anthropology

    Frozen mummy’s genetic blueprints unveiled

    DNA study reveals the 5,300-year-old Iceman had brown eyes, Lyme disease and links to modern-day Corsicans and Sardinians.

  8. Life

    Eggs may be made throughout adulthood

    The discovery of stem cells in human ovaries suggests that women are not born with a lifetime’s supply of gametes.

  9. Life

    Bird flu less deadly, but more widespread, than official numbers suggest

    The H5N1 virus appears to have infected far more than the 573 officially confirmed victims.

  10. Genetics

    Crosses make lab mice even more useful

    Scientists have bred new strains of lab animals with the goal of making it easier to tease out genetic components of complex diseases.

  11. Life

    All genes aren’t indispensable

    Even healthy people may have about 20 genes that are completely inactivated, a new study finds.

  12. Lessons from the Torpid

    Hibernators have some helpful tips for keeping humans healthy