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 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. -
SARS-CoV-2 has been evolving the ability to evade the immune system about twice as fast as the fastest-evolving flu virus. It averages more than a dozen significant changes every year.
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Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford professor of health policy, faced tough questioning from the Senate HELP Committee during a confirmation hearing. -
Hoping to bring the giant, ancient animal back from extinction, scientists have created a far smaller woolly creature. Woolly mice have some of the key traits of mammoths, including their thick, hairy coat. -
Dr. Francis Collins is leaving the National Institutes of Health, where he served as director from 2009 to 2021. The agency is facing cutbacks and restrictions under the Trump administration. -
The FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee was scheduled for next month. But the agency notified committee members that the meeting had been canceled.
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Thousands of grant applications had been stalled when the Trump administration blocked the National Institutes of Health from posting notices to the Federal Register. -
Researchers say the Trump administration's plan to slash payments for indirect costs will hamper new medical science. One example? A lab studying respiratory viruses faces losing half its staff. -
Medical researchers say the Trump administration's plan to reduce payments for indirect research costs will hamper the search for new cures. A visit to University of Maryland lab studying how viruses spread to illustrates the impact.
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The National Institutes of Health had to stop considering new grant applications, delaying funding for research into diseases ranging from heart disease and cancer to Alzheimer's and allergies.
