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

    Scientists may have found an antidote for death cap mushrooms

    A dye countered the effects of a mushroom toxin in human cells and mice. If the antidote does the same in people, it has potential to save lives.

  2. Life

    The new human pangenome could help unveil the biology of everyone

    The deciphered DNA includes never-before-explored parts of the genome and better represents the genetic diversity of all humans.

  3. Health & Medicine

    The FDA has approved the first-ever vaccine for RSV

    GSK’s shot, for those 60 and over, can protect against severe respiratory syncytial virus. Other vaccines, including to protect newborns, are in the works.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Mouse hair turns gray when certain stem cells get stuck

    Stem cells involved in giving hair its color must keep moving and changing maturity levels to prevent graying, a mouse study suggests.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Here’s what we know about upcoming vaccines and antibodies against RSV

    New vaccines and monoclonal antibodies may be available this year to fend off severe disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus.

  6. Genetics

    What was Rosalind Franklin’s true role in the discovery of DNA’s double helix?

    Two researchers say that Rosalind Franklin knowingly collaborated with James Watson and Francis Crick to discover the molecular structure of DNA.

  7. Animals

    Octopus, squid and cuttlefish arms evolved to ‘taste’ different compounds

    Octopus suckers can taste a variety of greasy, sticky molecules, while squid and cuttlefish suckers detect bitter compounds.

  8. Health & Medicine

    The antiviral drug Paxlovid reduces the risk of getting long COVID

    In a study of U.S. veterans’ health records, the drug lowered the odds of developing 10 of 13 long-term health problems following a COVID-19 infection.

  9. Health & Medicine

    U.S. cases of a deadly fungus nearly doubled in recent years

    Though numbers are still small, clinical cases of Candida auris in the jumped 95 percent from 2020 to 2021, a CDC survey finds.

  10. Genetics

    Why experts recommend ditching racial labels in genetic studies

    Racial labels don’t explain biological and genetic diversity but do cause stigma. They belong “in the dustbin of history,” a panel of experts says.

  11. Life

    Fungi don’t turn humans into zombies. But The Last of Us gets some science right

    Fungi like those in the post-apocalyptic TV show are real. But humans’ body temperature and brain chemistry may protect us from zombifying fungi.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Why it’s easier to catch a cold, the flu or COVID in the winter

    Low humidity protects viruses and cold temperatures may blunt some immune responses, making viral infections like colds, flu and COVID-19 more likely.