Kizzmekia S. Corbett

In the summer term of 2005 (May-August), Corbett worked under Gloria Viboud, Ph.D., in a lab studying Yersinia pseudotuberculosis pathogenesis, the development of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, which is a far-east scarlet fever-like ailment.

During Corbett's time at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she focused on the dengue virus in Sri Lankan children under the supervision of Aravinda de Silva. Corbett studied the human response to the pathogens and the antibody production due to the dengue virus. Additionally, she studied how the virus DNADNA impacts the severity of cases. Corbett spent her off-campus fellowship in Sri Lanka as a visiting scholar with the Genetech Research Institute from April 2014 to May 2014. While in Sri Lanka, Corbett did follow-up exams on the children who provided initial samples for her research and obtained updated samples to study the antibody development further and write her dissertation that can be found here.

Kizzy Corbett was born on January 26, 1986, in Hurdle Mills, North Carolina, and is the daughter of Rhonda Brooks. Corbett and her family, which includes her mother;, step-father;, and six siblings, moved to Hillsborough, North Carolina after Corbett's fourth-grade teacher insisted Kizzy be placed on the "most demanding academic track possible."

Corbett received many acceptances to various colleges but accepted her offer from The University of Maryland because of her admittance into the Meyerhoff Scholars Program. In an interview with NBC News, Corbett stated she accepted the Meyerhoff offer because of the full-ride scholarship, the network, and the overall program.

Kizzy Corbett's science-related professional life began when she was in high school and has developed over the course of her education and professional experience.

At the age of fifteen, Corbett received an invitation to participate in Project SEED, an American Chemical Society merit-based summer experience program for economically disadvantaged teens interested in mathematics and science. She attended the program for two consecutive summers and was allowed to work in laboratories studying the chemistry of pharmaceuticals and other related fields.

In 2020, after the on-setonset of the Coronavirus global pandemic, Corbett began working on a vaccine for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), at the NIH's Vaccine Research Center (VRC), after noticing the similarities between Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and COVID-19. The team used prior knowledge of the coronavirus S proteins to begin working on a solution for COVID. Using Corbett's prior knowledge and assistance and collaboration from the University of Texas, at Austin, the teams transplanted stabilizing mutations from SARS-CoV S protein into SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins. Previously, Corbett had been a team member responsible for the cryogenic electron microscopy (CryoEM) structure of the SARS CoV-2 spike protein. This previous research suggested that messenger RNA (mRNA) encoding to S protein could be used to agitate the human immune response to produce antibodies against COVID.

Kizzmeikia (Kizzy) Shanta Corbett is an American-born viral immunologist working at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) based in Bethesda, Maryland, as a research fellowresearch fellow in the Vaccine Research Center (VRC). Corbett is the scientific lead researcher for the VRC Coronavirus Team, researching possible vaccine solutions for the virus.

In the summer term of 2005 (May-August), Corbett worked under Gloria Viboud, Ph.D., in a lab studying Yersinia pseudotuberculosisYersinia pseudotuberculosis pathogenesis, the development of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, which is a far-east scarlet fever-like ailment.

At the age of fifteen, Corbett received an invitation to participate in Project SEEDProject SEED, an American Chemical Society merit-based summer experience program for economically disadvantaged teens interested in mathematics and science. She attended the program for two consecutive summers and was allowed to work in laboratories studying the chemistry of pharmaceuticals and other related fields.

Corbett's team at the NIH VRC partnered with Moderna for vaccine development and manufacturing needs in 2020 and entered the Phase I clinical trialclinical trial 66 days after the virus sequence was released. The phase I trial was conducted using 45 people and two injections that were delivered 28 days apart.