Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett is the scientific lead for the Coronavirus Vaccines & Immunopathogenesis Team at the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Vaccine Research Center (VRC). Appointed to the VRC in 2014, her work focuses on developing novel coronavirus vaccines, including mRNA-1273, a candidate vaccine against the virus that causes COVID-19. In response to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccine concept incorporated in mRNA-1273 was designed by Dr. Corbett’s team from viral sequence and rapidly deployed to an industry partner, Moderna, Inc., for FDA-approved phase 1 clinical trial. The clinical trial, including 45 participants, started only 66 days from the release date of the virus sequence. Following promising results in animal models and humans, mRNA-1273 is currently in Phase 3 clinical trial. Alongside mRNA-1273, Dr. Corbett’s team boasts a portfolio that also includes universal coronavirus vaccine candidates and novel therapeutic antibodies. Additionally, Dr. Corbett spent several years working on a universal influenza vaccine, which is slated for phase 1 clinical trial in the upcoming year. She has fifteen years of expertise with the dengue virus, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza virus, and coronaviruses. Her scientific career began at the University of Maryland – Baltimore County (UMBC), where she was a Meyerhoff Scholar and an NIH undergraduate scholar. She received a BS in Biological Sciences, with a secondary major in Sociology, in 2008. She then enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), from where she obtained her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology in 2014. Here is a link to a talk by Dr. Corbett, which is similar to her virtual Cornell University scientific seminar in November 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpqfdr9FPWM.