Kizzmekia Corbett is an immunologist best known for her central role in designing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, one of the first two mRNA vaccines authorized for emergency use during the pandemic. Her years of research on coronavirus spike proteins before 2020 made it possible to develop a vaccine candidate within days of the virus’s genetic sequence becoming public.
The Spike Protein Work That Made a Fast Vaccine Possible
Corbett’s most significant scientific contribution is a technique for stabilizing coronavirus spike proteins, the molecular structures viruses use to enter human cells. Working at the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center starting in 2014, she and her team figured out that inserting two specific amino acid changes (called “2P mutations”) into a coronavirus spike protein locks it into its pre-infection shape. That locked shape is far better at training the immune system to produce neutralizing antibodies than the spike protein in its natural, shape-shifting form.
This wasn’t a discovery that happened in response to COVID-19. Corbett spent years developing and testing this approach against MERS, a related coronavirus that emerged in 2012. Between 2016 and 2019, she published extensively on MERS spike protein structure, vaccine antigens, and neutralizing antibodies. That body of work meant the team already had a proven blueprint for designing a coronavirus vaccine when a new threat emerged.
On January 10, 2020, Chinese researchers publicly released the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus. Within 24 hours, Corbett’s team applied the 2P stabilization technique to the new virus’s spike protein entirely through computer modeling, without needing to wait for physical virus samples. The resulting stabilized spike protein became the core of mRNA-1273, which the world came to know as the Moderna vaccine. Corbett is a named inventor on the international patent for prefusion coronavirus spike proteins and their use in vaccines.
Her Path to the Vaccine Research Center
Corbett earned her PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014. Her doctoral research focused on something entirely different from coronaviruses: she studied how children’s immune systems respond to dengue virus infections, analyzing blood samples from a pediatric cohort in Sri Lanka. That work gave her deep expertise in antibody responses, particularly how the breadth and specificity of those responses change over time and influence disease outcomes.
She joined the NIH’s Vaccine Research Center immediately after completing her doctorate, becoming the team lead for coronavirus research within the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory under Dr. Barney Graham. That position put her at the intersection of coronavirus biology and vaccine design for six years before the pandemic began.
Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy in Black Communities
Beyond laboratory work, Corbett became one of the most visible scientists working to build trust in COVID-19 vaccines among communities of color. As a Black woman who helped design one of the vaccines, she occupied a unique position in public health communication. She spoke at churches, engaged directly with people on social media, and gave public talks explaining the science behind mRNA vaccines in accessible terms. A Nature profile highlighted her dual role as both vaccine designer and community advocate, noting that she was “tackling vaccine hesitancy in churches and on Twitter” while continuing her research.
Recognition and Current Work
Corbett’s contributions earned wide recognition. TIME magazine named her one of its 2021 Heroes of the Year and included her on the TIME100 Next list earlier that same year. She also received the Benjamin Franklin Next Gen Award and the Salzman Memorial Award in Virology.
She now runs her own laboratory at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she holds the title of assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases. She is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Freeman Hrabowski Scholar and holds a Radcliffe Institute Shutzer assistant professorship. Her lab draws on her experience across multiple viruses, including RSV, dengue, influenza, and coronaviruses, to study how the immune system responds to emerging and re-emerging viral threats.