Rob Stein
Rob Stein is a correspondent and senior editor on NPR's science desk.
An award-winning science journalist with more than 30 years of experience, Stein mostly covers health and medicine. He tends to focus on stories that illustrate the intersection of science, health, politics, social trends, ethics, and federal science policy. He tracks genetics, stem cells, cancer research, women's health issues, and other science, medical, and health policy news.
Before NPR, Stein worked at The Washington Post for 16 years, first as the newspaper's science editor and then as a national health reporter. Earlier in his career, Stein spent about four years as an editor at NPR's science desk. Before that, he was a science reporter for United Press International (UPI) in Boston and the science editor of the international wire service in Washington.
Stein's work has been honored by many organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. He was twice part of NPR teams that won Peabody Awards.
Stein frequently represents NPR, speaking at universities, international meetings and other venues, including the University of Cambridge in Britain, the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea, and the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC.
Stein is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He completed a journalism fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health, a program in science and religion at the University of Cambridge, and a summer science writer's workshop at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.
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Researchers have found more than 275 million previously unreported genetic variants from data shared by nearly 250,000 volunteers. Half of the data are from participants of non-European ancestry.
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Scientists at a biotech company say they have created a key stem cell for Asian elephants that could help save the endangered species and become a steppingstone for bringing back the woolly mammoth. -
Scientists are optimistic that gene-edited animals could provide a new source of organs for transplantation. Pig organs modified to minimize rejection are now being tested in humans. -
Bioethicists, doctors and lawyers are weighing whether to redefine how someone should be declared dead. A change in criteria for brain death could have wide-ranging implications for patients' care. -
Scientists report that gene therapy restored at least some hearing and speech for five out of six children with a rare form of genetic deafness. -
In early December, the Food and Drug Administration approved a gene-editing treatment for sickle cell disease, the first for any illness. One patient helped pave the way. -
An experimental technology that might someday allow infertile couples, as well as gay and trans couples, to have genetically related children stirs hope. So far, the technique has worked in mice. -
The FDA approved the first gene-editing treatment for a human illness — the first genetic therapy for the brutal blood disorder sickle cell disease.
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The Food and Drug Administration approved two genetic treatments for sickle cell disease, including one that uses gene-editing. The approvals offer hope for patients and signal a new medical era. -
Researchers report the first results from a study testing the revolutionary gene-editing technique known as CRISPR for cutting high cholesterol.
