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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The Food and Drug Administration approved a new gene therapy for a rare but devastating genetic disorder. The drugmaker says the cost is worth it because it's a one-time treatment that saves lives.
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Superbugs are bacteria that can beat modern medicine's most powerful drugs. So doctors are racing to find new ways to fight back.
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Treatment with genetically altered bacteriophages — viruses that attack bacteria — may have halted a patient's near-fatal infection, hinting at new ways to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
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This could be a crucial year for the powerful gene-editing technique CRISPR as researchers start testing it in patients to treat diseases such as cancer, blindness and sickle cell disease.
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An international group of 18 prominent scientists and bioethicists is calling for countries around the world to impose a moratorium on the creation of babies whose genes have been altered in the lab.
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Researchers think genetically engineered versions of microbes that can live in humans could help treat some rare genetic disorders and perhaps help with Type 1 diabetes, cirrhosis and cancer.
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What are some of the leading arguments against this experiment? What happens to other species in the food chain? Isn't developing a vaccine a better way to go?
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The insects were created, using CRISPR, to carry a powerful "gene drive." The mosquitoes could provide a potent weapon against malaria, but they raise fears about unpredictable environmental effects.
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Despite outrage over gene editing in China that affected the birth of twins, research is underway in the U.S. to assess the safety and effectiveness of CRISPR tools to edit genes in human embryos.
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Despite outrage over gene editing in China that affected the birth of twins, research is underway in the U.S. to assess the safety and effectiveness of CRISPR tools to edit genes in human embryos.
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A dramatic increase in vaping among high school students is the largest yearly change ever seen in a long-running survey tracking substance use and abuse by teens.
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U.S. National Academy of Medicine, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and Chinese Academy of Sciences call for international gene-editing standards. Critics blast statement as inadequate.