Shafaq Zia

Shafaq Zia is a science journalist and a graduate student in the Graduate Program in Science Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously, she was a reporting intern at STAT, covering the COVID-19 pandemic and the latest research in health technology.

From this contributor

Spectrum

By Jill Adams, Angie Voyles Askham, Peter Hess, Shafaq Zia

10 June 2022

3 min read

Spotted around the web: COVID-19 during pregnancy, sleep problems, eugenics

Here is a roundup of news and research for the week of 6 June.

Spectrum

Spotted around the web: COVID-19 during pregnancy, sleep problems, eugenics

By Jill Adams, Angie Voyles Askham, Peter Hess, Shafaq Zia

10 June 2022 | 3 min read

Spectrum

By Shafaq Zia

9 December 2021

3 min read

New resource tracks genetic variations in Han Chinese populations

An online database called NyuWa catalogs genetic variations among nearly 3,000 individuals and provides a comprehensive reference genome for the Han people.

Spectrum

New resource tracks genetic variations in Han Chinese populations

By Shafaq Zia

9 December 2021 | 3 min read

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11 December 2025

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Among brain changes studied in autism, spotlight shifts to subcortex

The striatum and thalamus are more likely than the cerebral cortex to express autism variants or bear transcriptional changes, two unpublished studies find.

Spectrum

Among brain changes studied in autism, spotlight shifts to subcortex

The striatum and thalamus are more likely than the cerebral cortex to express autism variants or bear transcriptional changes, two unpublished studies find.

By Holly Barker

11 December 2025 | 5 min read

Organoids

By Claudia López Lloreda

10 December 2025

7 min read