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

    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.

  2. Life

    One ocean, four (or more) killer whale species

    A new genetic analysis splits killer whales into multiple taxa.

  3. 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.

  4. Life

    Undereducated immune cells get aggressive with HIV

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

  5. Life

    One ocean, four (or more) killer whale species

    Killer whales may be at least four species, a new study of mitochondrial DNA shows.

  6. Life

    Scientists bag frog genome

    Lab favorite arrives relatively late to the genetic revolution.

  7. Life

    DNA comparison of identical twins finds no silver bullet for MS

    The first study of its kind suggests an unknown environmental cause for multiple sclerosis, but future research could still yield a genetic trigger.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Body makes its own morphine

    A study in mice suggests other mammals, including humans, can produce the painkiller in their bodies.

  9. Life

    BATTLE trial personalizes lung cancer treatment

    A new study makes a first step toward personalized chemotherapy.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Embryo transfer technique could prevent maternally inherited diseases

    A new technique transplants healthy nuclear DNA of cells carrying mutated mitochondria.

  11. Life

    Mutation effects often depend on genetic milieu

    Genetic background is at least as important as environment, fruit fly research shows.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Vaccine works against type 1 diabetes in mouse experiments

    Researchers uncover a self-regulating feature of the immune system.