Michael Eisenstein.

Michael Eisenstein

Freelance Writer

Michael Eisenstein is a freelance writer covering a broad range of topics in biomedical research and biotechnology. Prior to working as a freelancer, he was on the founding editorial team of Nature Methods, where he served as news and technology editor. His writing has appeared in Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News and Scientific American, among other publications.

Eisenstein has an M.S. in molecular biology from Rockefeller University and an Sc.B. in biology from Brown University.

From this contributor

Annette Dolphin.
Ion channels Microphone

Remembering Annette Dolphin, who helped explain gabapentin’s effects

By Michael Eisenstein
13 March 2026 | 7 min read
Spectrum from The Transmitter.
Spectrum

Treatments: In the waiting room

By Michael Eisenstein
6 December 2012 | 13 min read

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Ground squirrel.
Neuro’s ark

How thirteen-lined ground squirrels illuminate retinal development

In most mammalian retinas, rods outnumber cones. But that ratio is flipped in ground squirrels, a quirk that helps Seth Blackshaw explore how retinal cells develop their identities.

By Sarah Thau
31 July 2026 | 5 min read
Building at Colby-Sawyer College.
Epigenetics

Highlights from the first-ever Neural Genetics and Epigenetics Gordon Research Conference

The meeting’s organizers recap the science to watch.

By Francisco J. Rivera Rosario
30 July 2026 | 4 min read
Research image of the association cortex.
Spectrum

Cortical territories compete in developmental space race

Sensory and association regions are established through a reciprocal process, according to a new model of cortical development.

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