Kizzmekia Corbett

Kizzmekia Corbett

Kizzmekia Shanta Corbett is an American viral immunologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. She is currently the scientific lead of the VRC’s Coronavirus Team, with research efforts aimed at propelling novel coronavirus vaccines.

About Kizzmekia Corbett in brief

Summary Kizzmekia CorbettKizzmekia Shanta Corbett is an American viral immunologist at the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. She is currently the scientific lead of the VRC’s Coronavirus Team, with research efforts aimed at propelling novel coronavirus vaccines, including a COVID-19 vaccine. 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. \”Corbett was born in Hurdle Mills, North Carolina to Rhonda Brooks. She grew up in Hillsborough, a rural town in North Carolina, where she had a large family of step-siblings and foster siblings.

Corbett went to Oak Lane Elementary School and A. L. Stanback Middle School. In 2008, Corbett received a B. S. in biological sciences and sociology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a student in the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program. In 2014, she received a PhD in microbiology and immunology from theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was part of the team who helped solve the cryogenic electron microscopy structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.