Kizzmekia S. Corbett-Helaire, PhD, is an viral immunologist whose work was key to the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. As a high school student, Corbett-Helaire participated in an American Chemical Society-sponsored program called Project SEED, a program for gifted underprivileged students. This gave her the opportunity to work in research laboratories during the summer. In 2014, Corbett-Helaire earned a PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and began working as a viral immunologist at the NIH. Her early research studied the development of SARS and MERS antigens, particularly looking at spike proteins. She was part of a team at the NIH that worked with Moderna, the biotechnology company that developed one of the two mRNA vaccines that has shown to be more than 90% effective. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
