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

    To researchers’ surprise, one Pseudomonas infection is much like the next

    Consistent genetic changes in the lung bacteria that commonly plague cystic fibrosis patients are a welcome discovery because they may point to new treatment strategies.

  2. Life

    A thousand points of height

    A study finds heaps of genetic variants that influence a person’s stature, but even added together they don’t stack up to much.

  3. Health & Medicine

    How the brain chooses sides

    A new study reveals where and how people decide which hand to use for a simple task.

  4. Life

    Imperfect mimics

    Reprogramming techniques may not produce exact embryonic stem cell replicas.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Vital flaw

    Liver cells that inherit the wrong number of chromosomes often do just fine, and may even have some advantages.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Obesity in children linked to common cold virus

    Exposure to adenovirus-36 may partly explain why kids are getting heavier, a new study suggests.

  7. Life

    Environmental DNA modifications tied to obesity

    Chemical changes that affect gene activity could underlie many common conditions, a new study suggests.

  8. Life

    Doing their part by not doing their part

    Freeloaders can be good for a community, yeast experiments suggest.

  9. Health & Medicine

    A cellular secret to long life

    Longevity may depend in part on histones, proteins that keep DNA neatly spooled in the cell’s nucleus and help regulate gene activity.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Study clarifies obesity-infertility link

    In female mice, high insulin levels cause a disruptive flood of fertility hormones.

  11. Life

    Why starved flies need less sleep

    Low lipid levels keep the insects buzzing past bedtime, a new study finds, suggesting a role for metabolism in regulating sleep.

  12. Life

    Gene profiles may predict TB prognosis

    A molecular profile may help doctors predict who will get sick from TB infections.