![Tina Hesman Saey](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/t_saey.jpg?resize=214%2C214&ssl=1)
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.
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All Stories by Tina Hesman Saey
- Health & Medicine
New brain cell growth restores function
Regeneration in the hippocampus helps repair learning and memory after injury, mouse experiments suggest.
- Life
Who felt it not, smelt it not
A genetic defect in a crucial protein stops both pain and smells from reaching the brain.
- Life
In evolution, last really can be first
By tracking bacteria for thousands of generations, researchers show how small DNA changes can eventually put underdogs on top.
- Life
Antibiotics may make fighting flu harder
The drugs kill helpful bacteria that keep the immune system primed against viral infections.
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- Humans
Missing bits of DNA may define humans
Genetic information lost along the way may have led to bigger brains and spineless penises, among other traits.
- Health & Medicine
Alpha wave may affect sleep quality
A type of brain activity once considered diagnostic of wakefulness persists during slumber, and the more intense it is the more easily a person can be jolted awake.
- Life
Good gene type for cancer bad for stroke
A DNA variant that helps prevent tumors may diminish the brain’s recovery after an interruption in blood supply.
- Chemistry
Mad cow-type diseases lie in wait
Prion infections build quickly in the brain then pause before killing, new research suggests.
- Humans
Sweeps weak in human evolution
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the rapid spread of beneficial mutations has been relatively rare in the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens, a new study shows.
- Humans
Adaptive no more
A potential benefit in prehistoric lean times, genetic variant may increase risk of gestational diabetes today.
- Life
Running a cancer roadblock
A new study shows how cells escaping from a breast tumor overcome a piece of RNA that usually stops them.