Rosie Mestel, a medical writer at the Los Angeles Times, writes news, features, and a weekly column for the paper's health section. Originally from England, she came to the United States to work for a PhD. in genetics. But after earning her degree and working as a post-doc in a fruit-fly lab, she decided to switch to science writing. After completing the science-writing program at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1991, she interned at the Dallas Morning News and then worked as a reporter for Discover magazine. She then embarked on a semi-freelancing career -- working as a West Coast correspondent for New Scientist and a contributing editor for Health magazine, while writing articles for Science, Natural History and Discover. She became a staff writer at the LA Times in 1998.