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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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. -
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. -
Two of the updated COVID-19 vaccines have arrived at pharmacies all over the country. On Friday, the FDA authorized the Novavax shot, which is also expected to be available in the coming days. -
The nation — and Olympic athletes, like Noah Lyles — are in another summer surge of COVID infections. CDC officials say the virus has become endemic. That means it is here to stay in a predictable way. -
With a skin sample from a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth, scientists are gaining new insights into what made the animals tick. The findings could also help controversial de-extinction efforts. -
Doctors say they can boost the odds donated organs will be usable by restarting blood circulation with a pump after donors are declared dead. Critics say the procedure blurs the definition of death. -
The CDC announced stricter regulations for importing dogs from abroad — or traveling internationally with your furry companions. -
Federal health officials say the U.S. has the building blocks to make a vaccine to protect humans from bird flu, if needed. But experts warn we're nowhere near prepared for another pandemic. -
The health officials say the country is ready to produce a vaccine against a worrisome flu virus that recently jumped from birds to cows and at least one person. But some experts are skeptical.
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Surgeons transplanted a kidney and thymus gland from a gene-edited pig into a 54-year-old woman in an attempt to extend her life. It's the latest experimental use of animal organs in humans.
