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 unprecedented study involves using the gene-editing technique CRISPR to edit a gene while it's still inside a patient's body. In exclusive interviews, NPR talks with two of the first participants. -
New coronavirus cases are at their lowest level since October. Some health experts think the vaccination campaign deserves credit for tamping down the U.S. outbreak. But will the downturn last?
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With a more contagious variant now dominant in the U.S., the country's genomic surveillance capacity is getting a major boost.
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An international team has put human cells into monkey embryos in hopes of finding new ways to produce organs for transplantation. But some ethicists still worry about how such research could go wrong.
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COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective but don't always provide perfect protection. Some vaccinated people later exposed to the virus still get sick. Why and how often that happens is under study.
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The variant known as B.1.1.7, which is more easily spread, was first identified in England last fall. Since then, it has spread quickly in the U.S.
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The answer, experts say, depends on how Americans behave in the next several weeks and how quickly vaccines get in arms.
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Many public health experts are now increasingly optimistic about how the pandemic is playing out in the U.S. Here's what they say we can expect for the rest of 2021.
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Public health experts are getting increasingly concerned that new COVID-19 hot spots may be emerging, especially in Michigan.
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These structures made from living human cells are similar to human embryos at the stage when they implant in the womb. They allow scientists to research new ways to treat infertility.
