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

    How a stomach bug may ward off asthma

    An ulcer- and cancer-causing bacterium may protect against the airway disease by influencing key players in inflammation.

  2. Life

    No sleep, no problem, but keep the grub coming

    A naturally occurring strain of fruit fly can thrive without slumber, but succumbs more quickly to starvation.

  3. Life

    Long-lived people distinguished by DNA

    A controversial study finds genetic signatures that may be able to identify people with the best chance of living to 100 or beyond.

  4. Life

    Chemo drug drives growth of some tumors

    A common treatment stimulates the growth of cells that give rise to ovarian cancer, but researchers may have a fix.

  5. Life

    Three monkeys a genetic mishmash

    Feat suggests embryonic stem cells are less flexible in primates than mice.

  6. Life

    Drugs activate dormant gene

    A compound that blocks DNA unwinding can spur production of a critical brain protein in mice, leading to hope for a therapy for Angelman syndrome.

  7. Life

    The electric mole rat acid test

    Naked mole rats don’t feel the burn of acid thanks to tweaks in a protein involved in sending pain messages to the brain.

  8. Life

    Cilia control eating signal

    Little hairlike appendages in brain cells control weight by sequestering an appetite hormone.

  9. Life

    Building the body electric

    Eyes can be grown in a frog’s gut by changing cells’ electrical properties, scientists find, opening up new possibilities for generating and regenerating complex organs.

  10. Life

    Eggs have own biological clock

    Reproductive cells age independently from the rest of the body, research in worms reveals.

  11. Life

    Bacteria in bondage

    Cells unleash proteins to cage unwanted invaders.

  12. Life

    Vying for the title of World’s Fastest Cell

    Scientists film 58 kinds of mobile cells to study movement — and to have a little fun.