Making an Impact
Kizzmekia Corbett, Ph.D.,
Microbiology and Immunology
University of North Carolina
Research Fellow, NIH Vaccine Research CenterDr. Corbett’s work has garnered her several awards including a Doctoral Merit Award and induction into UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Honor Society. She also received a travel fellowship to complete part of her dissertation project in Sri Lanka. Dr. Corbett’s research focuses on assessing and improving the immunogenicity of novel vaccine platforms for coronaviruses and influenza including COVID-19.
News features include:
- CNN: https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2020/04/15/coronavirus-vaccine-timeline-acfc-vpx.cnn
- NBC News – The woman leading COVID-19 vaccine trials is ‘not your average pocket-protector scientist’
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/scientist-kizzmekia-corbett-leads-way-covid-19-vaccine-trials-dedication-n1181626. - People Magazine – “Meet the ‘Outstanding’ 34-Year-Old Scientist Leading the Charge on Coronavirus Vaccine Trials”
https://people.com/human-interest/meet-scientist-leading-charge-coronavirus-vaccine-trials/ - Black Enterprise – “PRIOR TO COVID-19, DR. KIZZMEKIA S. CORBETT WAS FORMULATING SUCCESS AS A BLACK WOMAN IN SCIENCE” HTTPS://WWW.BLACKENTERPRISE.COM/PRIOR-TO-COVID-19-DR-KIZZMEKIA-CORBETT-WAS-FORMULATING-SUCCESS-AS-A-BLACK-WOMAN-IN-SCIENCE/
Darian Cash, Ph.D.,
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
UCLA
Senior Scientist, Moderna LabsDr. Cash completed his postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA. Currently, he is a biochemist with Moderna Labs pioneering a new class of drugs, messenger RNA therapeutics, with the vast potential to treat many diseases across a range of drug modalities and therapeutic areas. His team has developed a promising vaccine for COVID-19 and is currently in the testing stage to determine its effectiveness. His involvement in the work was recently highlighted on a 60 Minutes broadcast.
