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 gene-editing technique is effective for treating some illnesses but it's been too expensive to consider it for rare conditions. A new approach in the works could make it more widely available. -
The gene-editing technique known as CRISPR is promising to revolutionize medicine. Some researchers are trying to help make it available for people with very rare genetic disorders.
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Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford health researcher, is in line to lead the National Institutes of Health. Early in the pandemic he argued against lockdowns and focusing on people at highest risk. -
If you've got a fever, cough, aches and pains, and you're wondering, "What virus got me this time?" Now you can find out, without taking a trip to the doctor. -
The National Institutes of Health, the crown jewel of biomedical research in the U.S., could face big changes under the new Trump administration, some fueled by pandemic-era criticisms of the agency. -
At a hospital in Kentucky, a man who had been declared dead after a drug overdose was moving and visibly crying as he was prepped for surgery to donate his vital organs. The surgery was stopped, and the man is alive three years later. -
Two American biologists have won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering a crucial way genes are regulated.
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So far, very few people have been rolling up their sleeves to get the latest COVID-19 vaccines according to the first data from the CDC tracking demand for the new shots.
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It’s been almost a year since the Food and Drug Administration approved the first genetic treatments for sickle cell disease. So far, only a few patients have received the long-awaited treatments. -
The stress and isolation of the pandemic appears to have caused adolescent brains to have accelerated maturation, with girls brains maturing faster than boys, according to new research.
