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

    Jigsaw genetics

    Fragments of a fetus's genome can be pieced together from the mother's blood to allow prenatal diagnosis of genetic diseases.

  2. Life

    Friendly fire blamed in some H1N1 deaths

    A poorly targeted immune response to the 2009 pandemic flu virus caused young adults and the middle-aged to suffer more than usual.

  3. Life

    Just warm enough

    Mammals may have evolved a characteristic body temperature to avoid fungal infections without burning too hot.

  4. Genetic Dark Matter

    Searching for new sources to explain human variation.

  5. Life

    Dieting may plant seeds of weight regain

    Cutting calories causes changes in the brains of mice that appear to encourage binge eating under stressful conditions years later.

  6. Life

    RNA, obey

    Researchers make RNA machines that can change cells’ behavior.

  7. Life

    Big reveals for genome of tiny animal

    Tunicates’ scrambled gene order suggests that arrangement may not matter for vertebrate body plan and hints at the origins of mysterious DNA chunks called introns.

  8. Life

    Genes jump more in one type of autism

    A mutation that causes Rett syndrome also increases the activity of retrotransposons in the brain.

  9. Life

    Rare mutations key to brain disorders

    Many cases of mental retardation can be explained by genetic variants that arise in affected individuals.

  10. Life

    Soil search suggests broad roots for antibiotic resistance

    Drug-defeating genes are everywhere, but don’t blame dirt-dwelling bacteria for resistance seen in the clinic.

  11. Life

    The sandman gene

    Researchers find another genetic variant linked to sleep duration.

  12. Life

    Genome may be mostly junk after all

    A cross-species comparison suggests that more than 90 percent of the DNA in the human genome has no known function.