Decoding Spike: Kizzmekia Corbett's Successful Career and Vital Role in COVID-19 Vaccine Development

Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett is a viral immunologist who led the team that developed the Moderna COVID- 19 Vaccine. She grew up in Hillsborough, North Carolina and attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore County for her undergraduate degree. In 2014, Dr. Corbett recieved her PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Corbett was working at the National Institute of Health in 2020 when the entire world began to change.

Dr. Corbett and her team had already spent years researching coronavirus. Specifically, they were researching spike proteins, even understood the structure of the coronavirus spike proteins, essentially the “key” that allows the virus to enter human cells and begin infection. Her team got right to work, using this knowledge and partnering with Moderna to develop a vaccine that typically takes years, in just months. Understanding that spike proteins were at the heart of an adequate defense against infection, Dr. Corbett and other scientists had created experimental vaccines against SARS and MERS. Now, by swapping in the genetic code for the virus that creates COVID-19 — so named by the World Health Organization because it emerged in 2019 — they had a prototype they could already use. Dr. Corbett has referred to this ability to apply a template as the “plug and play” approach.

It took her only a few hours to prepare a modified sequence for a vaccine. By Jan. 14, the N.I.H. had shared that sequence with the vaccine developer Moderna, which used the code to create synthetic messenger RNA, the genetic material that holds instructions for how to build the spike proteins, which are recognised by the body’s immune system and teach it how to fight the virus. Messenger RNA is the backbone of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, and Pfizer’s vaccine, which also uses synthetic mRNA. By March 2020, Moderna was running the first human trials of its vaccine, and by December 2020 — less than a year after the first deaths in Wuhan were reported — it was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use.

Dr. Corbett devotes much of her time to mentorship, specifically in underserved communities as an advocate of STEM education and vaccine awareness. She is quoted as saying, “I would say that my role as a scientist is really about my passion and purpose for the world and for giving back to the world.” Recently, Dr. Corbett was announced as a joint winner of the 2022 J. William Fullbright Prize for International Understanding alongside Dr. Anthony Fauci. This award recognizes the leadership of both Dr. Corbett and Dr. Fauci in creating a vaccine that is now saving lives around the world.

Learn more about Kizzmekia:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/science/covid-vaccine-kizzmekia-corbett.html

https://ctsciencecenter.org/blog/celebrating-black-history-month-featuring-dr-kizzmekia-corbett/