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.
-
Victoria Gray's life has been transformed by her treatment for sickle cell disease with the gene-editing technique called CRISPR. She's in London telling her story at a scientific summit.
-
The last time this summit convened in 2018, the world was shocked to hear a scientist had created the first gene-edited babies. He was condemned, but gene-editing has continued, with some success. -
After three years, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center is ceasing operations. Its data dashboards and maps became go-to sources for information from the early days of the pandemic.
-
The new approach would simplify vaccination guidance so that, every fall, people would get a new shot, updated to try to match whatever variant is dominant.
-
And what about a cold or RSV? With all the illness spreading, it's virus soup out there these days. Some people feel so sick they're wondering if they're fighting more than one germ at once.
-
The National Center for Health Statistics estimates that cases of long-COVID have caused more the 3,000 deaths in the U.S., but this is undoubtedly an undercount.
-
Using CRISPR to modify certain immune cells could make cancer-fighting immunotherapy more potent for a broader set of patients. Two people who went through the treatment share their stories.
-
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Medical Association warn that the surge in RSV, flu and COVID is threatening the upcoming holiday season.
-
Looming over the holiday season this winter are three viruses instead of two: RSV, COVID and flu.
-
Two subvariants that have emerged from the soup of Omicron offspring are among the most adept at evading immunity. They appear poised to become dominant in the U.S. and could fuel a new surge.
