Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett

Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett is an American viral immunologist who was influential in creating the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Corbett is an Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Shutzer Assistant Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

For much of the world’s population the COVID-19 pandemic is the single biggest impact to ways of life in our time. Turning the world upside down, inside out, and bringing with it pain, despair, sickness, and death. From the get-go, hopes of a miracle cure or vaccine were all we could think of to help get back to our normal, pinning our hopes on the most brilliant scientists around the world.

In 2020, a National Institute of Health (NIH) group of researchers including Dr. Corbett, began developing a new SARS-CoV-2 vaccine based off previous research performed by Dr. Corbett herself. Her prior research and experience studying viral immunology helped to propel vaccine development for pandemic preparedness at impossible speed. The vaccine concept designed by Dr. Corbett’s NIH team was deployed to Moderna, Inc., for Phase 1 clinical trials, becoming one of the first approved vaccines for COVID-19, created, evaluated and authorized for emergency use in under a year.

To date About 250 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine have been administered. It is estimated that nearly 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines including Moderna during their first year alone. As a legacy Dr. Corbett’s work will have a substantial impact on ending the worst respiratory-disease pandemic in more than 100 years. However, Dr. Corbett is now stopping yet, as she is currently working on the development of a universal influenza vaccine, which is now slated to begin clinical trial, and will be the next frontier in pioneering immunology.

“The accomplishments of African Americans have long been ignored or overlooked by much of the scientific community and the general public. Dr. Corbett’s well-publicized scientific accomplishments, her vibrant African American role model status, and her powerful voice will make such practices a thing of the past.” —  Phylisha Agbor-Taylor