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

    Resveratrol shows activity against insulin resistance and retinal disease

    A widely touted anti-aging compound shows activity in people and may work in new ways to fight eye disease.

  2. Life

    Vestigial no more

    Gene doppelgängers may help regulate their look-alikes.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Genetic defect tied to autoimmune diseases

    Rare mutations in an enzyme lead to several different disorders.

  4. Health & Medicine

    H1N1 virus lacks Spanish flu’s killer protein

    Researchers uncover a deadly secret of Spanish flu.

  5. Humans

    First Mexican-American and African-American genomes completed

    Studies hint that genetic diversity among Native Americans may rival that seen in some African populations.

  6. Health & Medicine

    What’s missing may be key to understanding genetics of autism

    A large study of people with the developmental disorder reveals the importance of extremely rare variations in genes, making each case a bit different.

  7. Humans

    Tracing Jewish roots

    An analysis of the entire genome of Jewish people shows Middle Eastern roots and traces ancestry across the globe.

  8. Life

    Seaweed genome reveals tools for multicellular lifestyle

    Genetic blueprints of a brown alga reveal adaptations to changing tides and may give clues for to evolution of more complex life.

  9. Life

    All present-day life arose from a single ancestor

    A major tenet of evolutionary theory — that all life stems from a common source — passes a statistical test.

  10. Life

    One ocean, four (or more) killer whale species

    A new genetic analysis splits killer whales into multiple taxa.

  11. Life

    Neandertal genome yields evidence of interbreeding with humans

    After years of looking, geneticists are shocked to find that 1 percent to 4 percent of DNA in people from Europe and Asia is inherited from Neandertals.

  12. Life

    Undereducated immune cells get aggressive with HIV

    Scientists discover a mechanism that makes some people resistant to infection with the AIDS virus.