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

    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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Long COVID finally gets a universal definition

    If broadly adopted, this inclusive description of long COVID will help legitimize the ongoing struggles millions of people are facing post-infection.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Gen X has higher cancer rates than their baby boomer parents

    An unexplained uptick in cancer diagnoses among Gen Xers might be bad news for millennials and Gen Z.

  9. Genetics

    Horses may have been domesticated twice. Only one attempt stuck

    Genetic evidence suggests that the ancestors of domestic horses were bred for mobility about 4,200 years ago.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Bird flu can infect cats. What does that mean for their people?

    Pet owners can take precautions to avoid H5N1, such as keeping cats indoors and making sure they don’t eat raw meat or milk.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Malnutrition’s effects on the body don’t end when food arrives

    Children may struggle with inflammation, a weakened immune system and gut problems. New treatments may repair some damage.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Human body lice could harbor the plague and spread it through biting 

    Rats and fleas previously got all the blame, but humans’ own parasites could be involved.