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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Surgeons at NYU Langone Health in New York City had to remove a genetically modified pig kidney from Towana Looney, 53, of Gadsden, Ala., because her body rejected the organ. She's back on dialysis. -
The new research will study the physical and mental health effects of gender transition. It comes on the heels of the administration cutting hundreds of research grants for LGBTQ+ health. -
Colossal Biosciences says it used novel gene-editing technology to alter gray wolf DNA to breed the animals. Dire wolves recently featured prominently in the HBO series Game of Thrones. -
NPR obtained emails that went out last week to leaders at health agencies offering to transfer them to postings in tribal communities. Officials close to Dr. Anthony Fauci got the offer. -
Health agency staffers describe a week of widespread uncertainty about who still has a job and how the work will get done as thousands of "reduction in force" notices went out beginning April 1. To many it's the opposite of "government efficiency." -
Federal health agencies have to slash their spending on contracts by more than a third, on top of the 10,000-person staffing cuts which started this week. -
Staffers began receiving termination notices this morning as part of a major restructuring at HHS. Some senior leadership are on their way out too. -
A top vaccine advisor at the FDA was forced to resign on Friday. In his resignation letter, Dr. Peter Marks wrote "truth and transparency are not desired," by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -
The reduction in force comes along with a reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services, consolidating 28 divisions to 15. -
The National Institutes of Health is terminating dozens of studies examining why people are hesitant about vaccines and how to increase uptake. mRNA vaccine research may be on the chopping block, too.
