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. Health & Medicine

    Cancer screening and quitting smoking have saved nearly 6 million lives

    Prevention, screening and treatment advances combined stopped 5.94 million deaths from cancer in the United States from 1975 through 2020.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Some countries have eliminated malaria, but cases are growing elsewhere

    Egypt was added to the list of malaria-free places in 2024, but climate change, conflict and other threats could increase cases especially in Africa.

  3. Genetics

    A common drug may help treat a rare genetic disease

    Ibuprofen counters problems caused by mutations in the MAN1B1 gene, fruit fly tests show. Early results in three children are ”fairly positive.”

  4. Health & Medicine

    Male mosquitoes sometimes suck, too

    Blood isn’t actually toxic to all male mosquitos. In at least one virus-carrying species, it may even help them live longer.

  5. Genetics

    The discovery of microRNA wins the 2024 physiology Nobel Prize

    Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun found a new principle of gene regulation essential for all multicellular organisms.

  6. Health & Medicine

    HIV and illicit drugs are a bad mix. This scientist found an unexpected reason why

    The neuroscientist considers themself an outsider, which allows them to embrace people who have been marginalized, including people who have HIV.

  7. Health & Medicine

    New COVID-19 booster shots have been approved. When should you get one?

    The vaccines target the omicron variants currently circulating in the United States.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Why mpox is a global health emergency — again

    The WHO made the declaration as a potentially more infectious version of the deadly virus has emerged and mpox cases are rapidly rising across Africa.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Getting drugs into the brain is hard. Maybe a parasite can do the job

    Researchers want to harness the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis to ferry drugs, but some question if the risks can be eliminated.

  10. Health & Medicine

    How to stay healthy during the COVID-19 summertime surge

    Infections peak in the summer and winter. Up-to-date vaccinations, testing and masking can slow the spread.

  11. Genetics

    Freeze-drying turned a woolly mammoth’s DNA into 3-D ‘chromoglass’

    A new technique for probing the 3-D structure of ancient DNA may help scientists learn how extinct animals functioned, not just what they looked like.

  12. Archaeology

    Ancient Egyptian scribes’ work left its mark on their skeletons

    Years of hunching over, chewing pens and gripping brushes left the skeletons of Egyptian scribes with telltale marks of arthritis and other damage.