Kizzmekia "Kizzy" Shanta Corbett (born January 26, 1986)^[1] is an American viral immunologist. She is the Shutzer Assistant Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute and assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.^[2] She joined Harvard following six years at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIAID NIH) based in Bethesda, Maryland.^[3][4] She earned a PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) in 2014.^[5] Appointed to the VRC in 2014, Corrbett was the scientific lead of the VRC's Coronavirus Team,^[6] with research efforts aimed at propelling novel coronavirus vaccines, including a COVID-19 vaccine.^[7][8] In February 2021, Corbett was highlighted in the Time's "Time100 Next" list^[9] under the category of Innovators, with a profile written by Anthony Fauci.^[10]

Early life and education[edit]

Corbett was born in Hurdle Mills, North Carolina 1986, to Rhonda Brooks.^[4] She grew up in Hillsborough, North Carolina,^[11] where she had a large family of step-siblings and foster siblings.^[3]

Corbett went to Oak Lane Elementary School in Roxboro NC^[12] and A.L. Stanback Middle School.^[11][13] Her fourth grade teacher, Myrtis Bradsher, recalls recognizing Corbett's talent at an early age and encouraging Kizzy's mother to place her in advanced classes. "I always thought she is going to do something one day. She dotted i's and crossed t's. The best in my 30 years of teaching," Bradsher said in a 2020 interview with The Washington Post.^[12]

In 2004, Corbett graduated from Orange High School in Hillsborough, North Carolina.^[11] In 2008, Corbett received a B.S. in biological sciences and sociology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), as a student in the Meyerhoff Scholars Program.^[3] Corbett is among a cohort of recent UMBC graduates (also including Kaitlyn Sadtler) who have risen to prominence in biomedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[14][15] In 2014, Corbett received a PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For her doctoral work, Corbett worked in Sri Lanka to study the role of human antibodies in denguevirus pathogenesis.^[5]

Career[edit]

While in high school, Corbett realized that she wanted to pursue a scientific career, and as part of a program called ProjectSEED, spent her summer holiday working in research laboratories, one of which was at UNC's Kenan Labs with organic chemist James Morkin.^[1][3][11] In 2005, she was a summer intern at Stony Brook University in Gloria Viboud's lab where she studied Yersinia pseudotuberculosis pathogenesis. From 2006 to 2007, she worked as a lab tech in Susan Dorsey's lab at the University of Maryland School of Nursing.

After earning her bachelor's degree, from 2006 to 2009, Corbett was a biological sciences trainer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she worked alongside Dr. Barney S. Graham. At the NIH, Corbett worked on the pathogenesis of respiratory syncytial virus as well as on a project focused on innovative vaccine platform advancement.^[1]

From 2009 to 2014, Corbett studied human antibody responses to dengue virus in Sri Lankan children under the supervision of Aravinda de Silva at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill).^[5][16] She studied how people produce antibodies in response to dengue fever, and how the genetics of dengue fever impact the severity of a disease. From April to May 2014, as part of her research for her dissertation, Corbett worked as a visiting scholar at Genetech Research Institute in Colombo, Sri Lanka.^[1]

In October 2014, Corbett became a research fellow working as a viral immunologist at the NIH. Her research aims to uncover mechanisms of viral pathogenesis and host immunity.^[13] She specifically focuses on development of novel vaccines for coronaviridae.^[13] Her early research considered the development of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) vaccine antigens.^[17][18] During this time, she identified a simple way to make spike proteins that are stabilized in a conformation that renders them more immunogenic and manufacturable, in collaboration with researchers at Scripps Research Institute and Dartmouth College.^[19]

Development of COVID-19 vaccine[edit]

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Corbett started working on a vaccine to protect people from coronavirus disease.^[3] Recognizing that the virus was similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, Corbett's team utilized previous knowledge of optimal coronavirus S proteins to tackle the novel coronavirus.^[20][21] S proteins form a “crown” on the surface of coronaviruses and are crucial for engagement of host cell receptors and the initiation of membrane fusion in coronavirus disease. This makes them a particularly vulnerable target for coronavirus prophylactics and therapeutics. Based on her previous research, Corbett's team, in collaboration with Jason McLellan and other investigators at The University of Texas at Austin,^[22] transplanted stabilizing mutations from SARS-CoV S protein into SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.^[19] She was part of the NIH team who helped solve the cryogenic electron microscopy (CryoEM) structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.^[23] Her prior research suggested that messenger RNA (mRNA) encoding S protein could be used to excite the immune response to produce protective antibodies against coronavirus disease 2019.^[19][24]

To manufacture and test the COVID-19 vaccine Corbett's team partnered with Moderna, a biotechnology company, to rapidly enter animal studies. Subsequently, the vaccine entered Phase 1 clinical trial only 66 days after the virus sequence was released. The trial, to be completed in at least 45 people, is a dose escalation study in the form of two injections separated by 28 days.^[25] In December 2020, the Institute's Director, Anthony Fauci said: "Kizzy is an African American scientist who is right at the forefront of the development of the vaccine."^[26] In the Time's profile, Fauci wrote that Corbett has "been central to the development of the Moderna mRNA vaccine and the Eli Lilly therapeutic monoclonal antibody that were first to enter clinical trials in the U.S." and that "her work will have a substantial impact on ending the worst respiratory-disease pandemic in more than 100 years."^[10] Corbett's work afforded her the opportunity to be a part of the National Institutes of Health team that had Donald Trump at the Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center in March 2020.^{[4][27][28][29]} When asked about her involvement with the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, Corbett said, "To be living in this moment where I have the opportunity to work on something that has imminent global importance…it's just a surreal moment for me".^[30][31] Corbett stated she cried when the efficacy results showed the mRNA-1273 Moderna vaccine worked.^[32]

Public statements related to COVID-19[edit]

Corbett has called for the public to be cautious and respectful of one another during the coronavirus pandemic, explaining that regular hand washing and sneezing into one's elbow can help to minimize the spread of the virus. She has also emphasized that we should not stigmatize people who may be from areas where the virus started.^[11]

Corbett has worked to rebuild trust with vaccine hesitant populations such as the Black community.^[33][34][35] For example, she presented education about the COVID-19 vaccine development to Black Health Matters in October 2020.^[36][37] Her race has been a focus of government outreach; after a study released by the NAACP and others revealed that only 14% of black Americans believe a COVID-19 vaccine will be safe, NIAID Director Fauci was explicit: "the first thing you might want to say to my African American brothers and sisters is that the vaccine that you're going to be taking was developed by an African American woman."^[38]

Controversial tweets[edit]

Corbett made controversial racial comments on social media in early 2020. The Washington Post reported Corbett tweeted in February that President Trump's coronavirus task force "is largely people (white men) he appointed to their positions as director of blah blah institute. They are indebted to serve him NOT the people."^[12]

In March, when data showed African Americans disproportionately dying from coronavirus, Corbett wrote, "I tweet for the people who will die when doctors has [sic] to choose who gets the last ventilator and ultimately... who lives...the poor. And, while the article doesn’t explicitly say it... the black." When someone responded that the virus "is a way to get rid of us," Corbett replied, "Some have gone as far to call it genocide. I plead the fifth."^[12][39]

In April, Corbett implied black people are "doomed" in response to a tweet about systemic racism, "I am praying that policies reflect this is [sic] multiple ways... They must or we will be doomed in the next pandemic(s) too."^[39] That same month, African-American surgeon general Jerome Adams said black Americans were at an increased the risk of death from coronavirus because they suffer more from diabetes, obesity, and other illnesses, and suggested black Americans avoid alcohol and cigarettes during the epidemic. Corbett retweeted another user's tweet which called Adams' comments "offensive because they ignore systemic racism....Stop spreading harmful fallacies that support white supremacy," and then Corbett herself tweeted, "Pasting this thread here because it's appropriately put. Black people are not dying more because of their behaviors. That is just a cop out to adjust accountability."^[39] That same month, Corbett tweeted, "White men are not be [sic] dismissed. But the systems that they (ancestor or current) curated are...Merit [is] defined by prejudices."^[39]

"Since the controversy", wrote The Washington Post, "Corbett has scaled back her use of social media," and has stopped appearing on television.^[12]

Academic service[edit]

Corbett regularly shares information on Twitter and takes part in programs to inspire youth in underserved communities.^[13]

Honors[edit]

• UNC Frank Porter Graham Honor Society^[40]

• 2002–2004: American Chemical Society, Project SEED at UNC‐Chapel Hill^[41][42]

• 2006: National Institute of Health, NIH Undergraduate Scholarship^[43]

• University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Meyerhoff Scholar^[30]

• 2013: Third Pan American Dengue Research Network Meeting Travel Award^[44]

• 2021: Highlighted by Time magazine in the 2021 "Time100 Next" list, under the category of Innovators^[10]

• In recognition of her work on the vaccine, Orange County, North Carolina named January 12, 2021 "Dr. Kizzy Corbett Day".^[45][46]

Selected works and publications[edit]

Kizzmekia Corbett

Born

Kizzmekia Shanta Corbett

January 26, 1986 (age 35)

Hurdle Mills, North Carolina, U.S.

Alma mater

University of Maryland, Baltimore County (BS)

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (MS, PhD)

Known for

COVID-19 vaccine

Scientific career

Fields

Immunology

Microbiology

Institutions

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Harvard Radcliffe Institute

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Thesis

"Characterization of Human Antibody Responses to Dengue Virus Infections in a Sri Lankan Pediatric Cohort" (2014)

Scholia has an authorprofile for Kizzmekia Corbett.

• Corbett, Kizzmekia Shanta (August 2014). Characterization of Human Antibody Responses to Dengue Virus Infections in a Sri Lankan Pediatric Cohort (Thesis). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School. doi:10.17615/ajjc-6r57. Wikidata ()

• Corbett, Kizzmekia S.; Katzelnick, Leah; Tissera, Hasitha; Amerasinghe, Ananda; de Silva, Aruna Dharshan; de Silva, Aravinda M. (15 February 2015). "Pre-existing Neutralizing Antibody Responses Distinguish Clinically Inapparent and Apparent Dengue Virus Infections in a Sri Lankan Pediatric Cohort". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 211 (4): 590–599. doi:10.1093/infdis/jiu481. PMC 4375390. PMID 25336728. Wikidata ()

• Kirchdoerfer, Robert N.; Cottrell, Christopher A.; Wang, Nianshuang; Pallesen, Jesper; Yassine, Hadi M.; Turner, Hannah L.; Corbett, Kizzmekia S.; Graham, Barney S.; McLellan, Jason S.; Ward, Andrew B. (2 March 2016). "Pre-fusion structure of a human coronavirus spike protein". Nature. 531 (7592): 118–121. doi:10.1038/nature17200. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 4860016. PMID 26935699. Wikidata ()

• Raut, Rajendra; Corbett, Kizzmekia S.; Tennekoon, Rashika N.; Premawansa, Sunil; Wijewickrama, Ananda; Premawansa, Gayani; Mieczkowski, Piotr; Rückert, Claudia; Ebel, Gregory D.; De Silva, Aruna D.; de Silva, Aravinda M. (2 January 2019). "Dengue type 1 viruses circulating in humans are highly infectious and poorly neutralized by human antibodies" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116 (1): 227–232. doi:10.1073/pnas.1812055115. PMC 6320508. PMID 30518559. Wikidata ()

• Corbett, Kizzmekia S.; Moin, Syed M.; Yassine, Hadi M.; Cagigi, Alberto; Kanekiyo, Masaru; Boyoglu-Barnum, Seyhan; Myers, Sky I.; Tsybovsky, Yaroslav; Wheatley, Adam K.; Schramm, Chaim A.; Gillespie, Rebecca A.; Shi, Wei; Wang, Lingshu; Zhang, Yi; Andrews, Sarah F.; Joyce, M. Gordon; Crank, Michelle C.; Douek, Daniel C.; McDermott, Adrian B.; Mascola, John R.; Graham, Barney S.; Boyington, Jeffrey C.; Subbarao, Kanta (26 February 2019). "Design of Nanoparticulate Group 2 Influenza Virus Hemagglutinin Stem Antigens That Activate Unmutated Ancestor B Cell Receptors of Broadly Neutralizing Antibody Lineages". mBio. 10 (1). doi:10.1128/mBio.02810-18. PMC 6391921. PMID 30808695. Wikidata ()

• Rosen, Osnat; Chan, Leo Li-Ying; Abiona, Olubukola M.; Gough, Portia; Wang, Lingshu; Shi, Wei; Zhang, Yi; Wang, Nianshuang; Kong, Wing-Pui; McLellan, Jason S.; Graham, Barney S.; Corbett, Kizzmekia S. (March 2019). "A high-throughput inhibition assay to study MERS-CoV antibody interactions using image cytometry". Journal of Virological Methods. 265: 77–83. doi:10.1016/j.jviromet.2018.11.009. PMC 6357230. PMID 30468747.

• Wang, Nianshuang; Rosen, Osnat; Wang, Lingshu; Turner, Hannah L.; Stevens, Laura J.; Corbett, Kizzmekia S.; Bowman, Charles A.; Pallesen, Jesper; Shi, Wei; Zhang, Yi; Leung, Kwanyee; Kirchdoerfer, Robert N.; Becker, Michelle M.; Denison, Mark R.; Chappell, James D.; Ward, Andrew B.; Graham, Barney S.; McLellan, Jason S. (24 September 2019). "Structural Definition of a Neutralization-Sensitive Epitope on the MERS-CoV S1-NTD". Cell Reports. 28 (13): 3395–3405.e6. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2019.08.052. PMC 6935267. PMID 31553909. Wikidata ()

• Boyoglu-Barnum, Seyhan; Hutchinson, Geoffrey B.; Boyington, Jeffrey C.; Moin, Syed M.; Gillespie, Rebecca A.; Tsybovsky, Yaroslav; Stephens, Tyler; Vaile, John R.; Lederhofer, Julia; Corbett, Kizzmekia S.; Fisher, Brian E.; Yassine, Hadi M.; Andrews, Sarah F.; Crank, Michelle C.; McDermott, Adrian B.; Mascola, John R.; Graham, Barney S.; Kanekiyo, Masaru (7 February 2020). "Glycan repositioning of influenza hemagglutinin stem facilitates the elicitation of protective cross-group antibody responses". Nature Communications. 11 (1): 791. doi:10.1038/S41467-020-14579-4. PMC 7005838. PMID 32034141. Wikidata ()

• Wrapp, Daniel; Wang, Nianshuang; Corbett, Kizzmekia S.; Goldsmith, Jory A.; Hsieh, Ching-Lin; Abiona, Olubukola; Graham, Barney S.; McLellan, Jason S. (13 March 2020). "Cryo-EM Structure of the 2019-nCoV Spike in the Prefusion Conformation". Science. 367 (6483): 1260–1263. doi:10.1126/science.abb2507. PMC 7164637. PMID 32075877. Wikidata ()

References[edit]

• ^

• Jump up to:

• ^{a b c d} "Corbett continues quest for dengue fever vaccine". UNC Health Talk. 14 February 2014. Archived from the original on 13 April 2020.

• ^ "Leading coronavirus scientist, Kizzmekia S. Corbett, to join Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to continue vaccine development research". News. 2021-05-11. Retrieved 2021-06-28. Her first day will be June 14, 2021.

• ^

• Jump up to:

• ^{a b c d e} Givens, Dana; Blanco, Lydia; Corbett, Kizzmekia (26 March 2020). "Meet The Black Woman Taking the Lead to Develop a Vaccine For COVID-19". Black Enterprise. Archived from the original on 26 March 2020.

• ^

• Jump up to:

• ^{a b c} Ross, Janell (12 April 2020). "Scientist Kizzmekia Corbett leads the way on COVID-19 vaccine trials with dedication and humor". NBC News. Archived from the original on 12 April 2020.

• ^

• Jump up to:

• ^{a b c} "Congratulations to M&I 2014-2015 Graduates! (Part 2 of 3)". Department of Microbiology and Immunology. 2015-05-12. Retrieved 2021-02-21.

• ^ "Former M&I Graduate Student, Kizzmekia Corbett, Developing a Vaccine against the Coronavirus". Department of Microbiology and Immunology. 30 January 2020. Archived from the original on 12 August 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2020.

• ^ Sheikh, Knvul; Thomas, Katie (28 January 2020). "Researchers Are Racing to Make a Coronavirus Vaccine. Will It Help?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 January 2020.

• ^ Stein, Rob; King, Noel; Corbett, Kizzmekia (21 February 2020). "NIH Lab Races To Create Coronavirus Vaccine In Record Time". Morning Edition. NPR. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020.

• ^ "How We Chose the 2021 TIME100 Next". Time. Retrieved 2021-02-17.

• ^

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• ^{a b c} "2021 TIME100 Next: Kizzmekia Corbett". Time. Retrieved 2021-02-17.

• ^

• Jump up to:

• ^{a b c d e} Edwards, Dale (19 February 2020). "She has our back: Vaccine push has local connection". The News of Orange County.

• ^

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• ^{a b c d e} Fears, Darryl (6 May 2020). "Kizzmekia Corbett spent her life preparing for this moment. Can she create the vaccine to end a pandemic?". Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-05-07.

• ^

• Jump up to:

• ^{a b c d} "Keystone Symposia: Kizzmekia S. Corbett PhD; NIH, NIAID, Vaccine Research Center". Virtual Keystone Symposia. October 2018.

• ^ Dzirasa, Letitia Dzirasa, Delali. "It's time to expand affordable high-quality higher ed at places like UMBC that have a proven track | COMMENTARY". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2021-03-19.

• ^ Hrabowski, Freeman A.; Tracy, J. Kathleen; Henderson, Peter H. (2020-08-04). "Opinion: At a Crossroads: Reimagining science, engineering, and medicine—and its practitioners". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117 (31): 18137–18141. doi:10.1073/pnas.2013588117. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 7414165. PMID 32669431.

• ^ Corbett, Kizzmekia S.; Katzelnick, Leah; Tissera, Hasitha; Amerasinghe, Ananda; de Silva, Aruna Dharshan; de Silva, Aravinda M. (15 February 2015). "Preexisting Neutralizing Antibody Responses Distinguish Clinically Inapparent and Apparent Dengue Virus Infections in a Sri Lankan Pediatric Cohort". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 211 (4): 590–599. doi:10.1093/infdis/jiu481. PMC 4375390. PMID 25336728. Wikidata ()

• ^ Sims, Megan (29 March 2020). "Black woman immunologist leads charge to develop COVID-19 vaccine". TheGrio.

• ^ Beaumont, Peter (1 February 2020). "Researchers make strides in race to create coronavirus vaccine". The Guardian.

• ^

• Jump up to:

• ^{a b c} Neergaard, Lauran (8 March 2020). "Behind the scenes, scientists prep for COVID-19 vaccine test". The Washington Times. Associated Press.

• ^ "Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett Leads Effort To Find COVID-19 Cure". NewsOne. 28 March 2020.

• ^ Pollak, Suzanne (3 February 2020). "NIH Working to Develop Vaccine for Coronavirus". Montgomery Community Media.

• ^ Kramer, Jillian (31 December 2020). "They spent 12 years solving a puzzle. It yielded the first COVID-19 vaccines". National Geographic.

• ^ Wrapp, Daniel; Wang, Nianshuang; Corbett, Kizzmekia S.; Goldsmith, Jory A.; Hsieh, Ching-Lin; Abiona, Olubukola; Graham, Barney S.; McLellan, Jason S. (13 March 2020). "Cryo-EM structure of the 2019-nCoV spike in the prefusion conformation". Science. 367 (6483): 1260–1263. doi:10.1126/science.abb2507. PMC 7164637. PMID 32075877. Wikidata ()

• ^ Corbett, Kizzmekia S.; Edwards, Darin K.; Leist, Sarah R.; Abiona, Olubukola M.; Boyoglu-Barnum, Seyhan; Gillespie, Rebecca A.; Himansu, Sunny; Schäfer, Alexandra; Ziwawo, Cynthia T.; DiPiazza, Anthony T.; Dinnon, Kenneth H. (2020). "SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine design enabled by prototype pathogen preparedness". Nature. 586(7830): 567–571. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2622-0. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 7581537. PMID 32756549.

• ^ Forster, Victoria (17 March 2020). "First Person Injected With Trial Coronavirus Vaccine In Seattle". Forbes.

• ^ Romero, Laura (December 13, 2020). "Kizzmekia Corbett, an African American woman, is praised as key scientist behind COVID-19 vaccine". ABC News. Archived from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2020.

• ^ "First Campus Visit: Trump Gets Update on Coronavirus Research; Congressional Delegation Gets Coronavirus Update" (PDF). NIH Record. National Institutes of Health. LXXII (6): 1, 6, 7–9. 20 March 2020.

• ^ "The woman leading COVID-19 vaccine trials is 'not your average pocket-protector scientist'". NBC News. Retrieved 2020-12-13.

• ^ Silver, Johanna. "Dr. Fauci Spotlights Young Black Woman Who Helped Develop COVID-19 Vaccine, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett". NowThis News. Retrieved 2020-12-13.

• ^

• Jump up to:

• ^{a b} Hansen, Sarah (2 March 2020). "UMBC alumnae racing to develop coronavirus vaccine". UMBC Magazine.

• ^ "Kizzmekia Corbett, an African American woman, is praised as key scientist behind COVID-19 vaccine". ABC News. Retrieved 2020-12-13.

• ^ Ellis, Nicquel Terry (March 2, 2021). "These Black women are on the frontlines of the fight against Covid-19". CNN. Retrieved March 2,2021.

• ^ "Lead vaccine developer says she wants to help rebuild trust brick by brick". CNN. Retrieved 2021-01-05.

• ^ "Kizzmekia Corbett, an African American woman, is praised as key scientist behind COVID-19 vaccine". ABC News. Retrieved 2021-01-05.

• ^ Subbaraman, Nidhi (February 11, 2021). "This COVID-vaccine designer is tackling vaccine hesitancy — in churches and on Twitter". Nature. Retrieved February 14, 2021.

• ^ "COVID-19 Vaccine Kizzmekia S. Corbett, PHD Black Health Matters Fall Summit 2020". Youtube Black Health Matters channel. Retrieved 2021-01-05.

• ^ "The Race to Create a Coronavirus Vaccine". Black Health Matters. Retrieved 2021-01-05.

• ^ Harmeet Kaur. "Fauci wants people to know that one of lead scientists who developed the Covid-19 vaccine is a Black woman". CNN. Retrieved 2021-01-09.

• ^

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• ^{a b c d} Re, Greg; Pfeiffer, Alex (April 17, 2020). "Lead NIH coronavirus researcher suggested pandemic could be 'genocide', said doctors would let blacks die". Fox News.

• ^ "Alumni". UMBC Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP). Retrieved 2021-02-21.

• ^ "PROJECT SEED PARTICIPANTS & MENTORS". The TarHelium. The North Carolina Section of the American Chemical Society (NCACS). 33 (1): 4–5. Fall 2002.

• ^ Sremaniak, Laura (August 2015). "Where are those SEED Alumni now? Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, SEED Alumna from 2004". The TarHelium. The North Carolina Section of the American Chemical Society (NCACS). 46 (1): 19.

• ^ "Meet the Scholars from 2006: Kizzmekia Corbett". Office of Intramural Training & Education at the National Institutes of Health. 2006.

• ^ "Graduate School Events: 2013 Graduate Student Recognition Celebration". The Graduate School at UNC-Chapel Hill. 10 April 2013.

• ^ Lavigne, Lora (February 9, 2021). "Orange County original: Vaccine developer Corbett comes full circle with day named in her honor". WRAL. Retrieved February 9, 2021.

• ^ "Hillsborough Proclaims January 12 "Dr. Kizzmekia 'Kizzy' Corbett Day"". UNC Health Care. January 12, 2021. Retrieved January 12,2021.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kizzmekia Corbett.

• Kizzmekia Corbett at the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIAID NIH)

• TWiV 670: Coronavirus vaccine preparedness with Kizzmekia Corbett October 8, 2020. Kizzmekia Corbett joins TWiV to review her career and her work on respiratory syncytial virus, influenza virus, and coronaviruses and coronavirus vaccines, including her role in development and testing of a spike-encoding mRNA vaccine.

• Appearances on C-SPAN

• Kizzmekia Corbett on Twitter

Halfway through the school year, Myrtis Bradsher found herself paying close attention to a little girl called Kizzy. She always looked sharp, with ribbons knotted to her ponytails and socks that matched every outfit. But it was the way she rushed to help other fourth-graders with classwork that really stood out. “She had so much knowledge,” the teacher recalled. “She knew something about everything.”

In 25 years at Oak Lane Elementary School in rural Hurdle Mills, N.C., Bradsher had not seen a child like her. Bradsher was one of a few black teachers, and Kizzy was a rare black student. At a parent-teacher conference, Bradsher pushed to give the girl the advantages she felt she deserved. “Look,” she recalled saying to her mother, Rhonda Brooks, “she’s so far above other children. We need to send her to a class for exceptional students. I need you to say we have your permission.”

Bradsher’s recommendation put Kizzmekia Corbett on a path that ultimately led her to the National Institutes of Health, where she is heading the government’s search for a vaccine to end the coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 1.2 million Americans, killed over 70,000 and devastated the economy.

Corbett, 34, is a long way from the tobacco and soybean farms that surround her old elementary school. The advanced reading and math classes at Oak Lane prepared her to become a high school math whiz. She was recommended for Project SEED, a program for gifted minorities that allowed her to study chemistry in labs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a 10th-grader. She accepted a scholarship for minority science students that paid her way through the University of Maryland Baltimore County and introduced her to NIH.

“I didn’t know Kizzy had gone that far until recently,” said Bradsher, now 72 and retired. “I figured she would, but I thought I probably would never hear about it.”

But her high perch comes with more visibility and added scrutiny.

On Feb. 27, Corbett posted a tweet that lamented the lack of diversity on President Trump’s coronavirus task force: “The task force is largely people (white men) he appointed to their positions as director of blah blah institute. They are indebted to serve him NOT the people.”

And, as public health officials were reporting startling data that showed that the virus was disproportionately killing African Americans, Corbett vented on Twitter. “I tweet for the people who will die when doctors has to choose who gets the last ventilator and ultimately … who lives,” she wrote March 29. When someone responded that the virus “is a way to get rid of us,” Corbett replied: “Some have gone as far to call it genocide. I plead the fifth.”

That triggered a response from Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who read several of Corbett’s tweets aloud on his show and questioned her “commitment to scientific inquiry and rational thought.” He accused Corbett of “spouting lunatic conspiracy theories.”

Two news organizations reported that the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases where Corbett works, was investigating her tweets, but the agency said it had merely advised her of its social media guidelines.

Since the controversy, Corbett has scaled back her use of social media. She stopped appearing on television, and the NIAID declined to make her available to The Washington Post for an interview, saying a deluge of requests threatened to interfere with her work.

In an administration in which the president has had a tenuous relationship with his own scientists and experts, Corbett’s diminished visibility raised eyebrows. Her defenders say she was ridiculed for speaking the truth.

“I don’t think there’s anything she said that’s outlandish that goes against any type of code or standard,” said Robert Bullard, a professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University in Houston.

“What I’ve seen parade across that stage in the task force, other than the surgeon general, are all white people,” said Bullard, who is black. “To look and see these horrific disproportionate numbers of African Americans dying of coronavirus vindicates her tweet. She knew this virus would be like a heat-seeking missile that would target the most vulnerable.”

African Americans make up 80 percent of people hospitalized for covid-19 in Georgia and, at one time, 72 percent of those who died of the disease in Chicago.

Oliver Brooks, president of the National Medical Association, an organization of black doctors, said Corbett was right to point out the dearth of black doctors and researchers on the White House team. “I’m sorry — we should be represented on the task force,” he said. “She was just stating a fact.”

Corbett’s tweet about the ventilators reflects a long and painful history of disparity in medical care and health outcomes experienced by African Americans, Brooks said. One of the most notorious episodes, which sowed deep distrust in the medical establishment, took place from 1932 to 1972, when the U.S. Public Health Service allowed syphilis to progress in black men without their knowledge, denying them treatment with penicillin.

Long after that experiment ended, studies have shown white doctors spend more time with white patients than those who are black and prescribe different treatments. Life expectancy for African American men and women is shorter than for non-Hispanic whites, according to the federal government. And the death rate for African Americans is higher than for whites for a variety of ailments including stroke, heart disease, cancer, asthma, influenza, pneumonia and diabetes.

But Corbett’s tweet about genocide “concerns me a little bit,” Brooks said. “It’s subjective. I wouldn’t want to go there. I really don’t believe that. We’re dying at a higher rate but … that one just doesn’t fit.”

Still, if Corbett’s vaccine work is successful, none of that really matters, Brooks said. “I don’t care if she told me she doesn’t like my mama,” he said. “If she finds the vaccine, I’ll buy her lunch. I’d say I don’t like your politics, but I sure like your vaccine.”

Corbett’s team completed the first clinical trial for the development of a vaccine in early March. Working at a furious pace at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, the team hopes to have a vaccine by the middle of next year.

“She’s one of the hardest workers I know,” said Freeman Hrabowski, president of UMBC, where Corbett studied as an undergraduate from 2004 to 2008. “People don’t know how hard she works. She is an extraordinary human being with a passion for science and helping people.”

Corbett attended UMBC on a full ride as part of the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program, aimed at increasing diversity among future leaders in science, technology, engineering and related fields.

The program’s director, Keith Harmon, recalled how Corbett walked into the room with 25 other high-achieving minority students. “I remember a very energetic, really outgoing young person, a people person,” Harmon said. “You could just see in their eyes what it meant to be in this space with people who look like them and have their same drive and goals. It’s kind of like they’ve found their people.”

Corbett was intent on building on what she had learned each summer. Her first stop in 2005 was the Stony Brook School of Health Technology and Management in New York, where she studied under Gloria Viboud, an associate professor of medical molecular biology and program director of clinical laboratory sciences.

Viboud noticed what Bradsher saw in Corbett years before as she quickly mastered unfamiliar genetic cloning techniques and devoured background literature.

“She was always ahead of the other … students, completing an assigned poster and mock publication well before they were due,” Viboud wrote in a recommendation to the UNC doctoral program that she provided to The Post. “In 15 years of training undergraduate students, I must note that seeing a student as enthusiastic about research as Kizzy is extremely uncommon.”

In 2006, Corbett spent a year at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, where Susan Dorsey, a professor and chair of the Department of Pain and Translational Symptom Science, ran a lab that allowed students to perfect their work with wet chemicals.

“Some folks, it takes them a fair amount of time to learn the language and develop the skills,” Dorsey said. “She was very quick to thoroughly understand every single step, which for an undergraduate student is fairly remarkable. Every student realized … she would definitely be a superstar — sort of not an if but when.”

Four years later, she was in the doctorate program at UNC-Chapel Hill, spending her summers studying diseases such as dengue and coronavirus at what had become a familiar place, NIH.

“She worked on that for four or five years and was a kind of a leader,” said [Dr. Ralph Steve Baric (born 1954)], who served on Corbett’s thesis committee at UNC. “She actually had most of the pioneering data.” Her interests put her in position to assume a leadership role if a pandemic were to strike.

“It was a fortuitous move” that required “a little bit of luck, some foresight, and a need” for her type of expertise, Baric said.

At NIH, Corbett was not shy about her ambition. During a summer internship there, Barney Graham, who ran the Vaccine Research Center, asked her what she wanted to achieve in life.

“She said, ‘I want your job,’” Graham recalled, according to NBC News. “From the very beginning, she was really pretty bold in her aspirations.”

When Bradsher learned Corbett was leading the team that could save lives and restart the economy, she swelled with pride.

“I always thought she is going to do something one day,” she said. “She dotted i’s and crossed t’s. The best in my 30 years of teaching.”

One of the lead scientists who developed Moderna's coronavirus vaccine is a UNC alumna and an Orange County native.

Kizzmekia Corbett is a graduate of Orange High School and UNC's doctoral program in microbiology and immunology.

“It goes without saying that this is home,” Corbett said at a Jan. 19 Orange County Board of Commissioners meeting, where she was honored by the board declaring Jan. 20 "Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett Day." Corbett was also honored by the towns of Hillsborough and Carrboro.

Early life

During her time at Orange High School, Corbett trained as a junior researcher in UNC's Kenan Laboratories while in theProject SEED program.

She went on to attend the University of Maryland-Baltimore County as a Meyerhoff Scholar, receiving a bachelor's degree in biological sciences. While attending UMBC, Corbett studied respiratory syncytial virus and focused on why vaccines had not been effective against it.

From 2006 to 2007, Corbett worked as a lab tech in Susan Dorsey’s lab at the University of Maryland's School of Nursing.

“What we always say is you can’t train passion for research,” Dorsey said. “I can train you to do anything, but that passion and that dedication, that resilience, is not trainable. We all saw that very early on and we thought, ‘The sky’s the limit.’"

After receiving her bachelor’s degree, Corbett attended UNC, where she got her doctorate in microbiology and immunology. While at UNC, Corbett studied dengue fever, a virus that had proved difficult to create a vaccine for.

She also worked with professor Ralph Baric, someone Corbett described as one of the best coronavirus virologists in the world.

“He studied coronavirus evolution, and it was very clear — even in 2014 when I left UNC — that coronaviruses had this potential to cause pandemics,” Corbett said at the Jan. 19 BOCC meeting.

The U.S. government wasn’t paying enough attention to coronaviruses, she said, which is why she decided to join the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Baric said there is hope the vaccine developed by Corbett and others at the Vaccine Research Center will make a difference.

“She has a real sense for not only the basic science part of what we do, but the personal side of how infectious diseases really impact people on the ground at all social levels,” Baric said. “That’s a rare insight that many of us don’t get to achieve.”

COVID-19 pandemic

In January 2020, Moderna announced it would be partnering with the National Institute of Health to develop a coronavirus vaccine in the Vaccine Research Center. Clinical trials for the vaccine began in March.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a prominent scientist during the pandemic, praised Corbett in a conference hosted by the National Urban League last December.

“Kizzy is an African American scientist who is right at the forefront of the development of the vaccine,” Fauci said. “So the first thing you might want to say to my African American brothers and sisters is that the vaccine you are going to be taking was developed by an African American woman, and that is just a fact.”

Since the Moderna vaccine was given emergency use authorization by the FDA in December, Corbett has been raising public support for the vaccine, especially within Black communities that have been historically marginalized for the sake of science.

Chapel Hill may be seeing more of Corbett in the future, as she revealed at the meeting that she is being recruited by UNC to become a professor. She has not yet announced whether she will be accepting the position.

For now, Corbett can be found on Twitter, where she posts regular vaccine updates often accompanied by a GIF.