The lead scientist who is researching a COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine tells STEM students to stay focused, have a true career support team and to let their own good work be a voice to critics.
Viral immunologist Kizzmekia Corbett is the scientific lead for the Coronavirus Vaccine Program at the Vaccine Research Center. The center is part of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, a subsidiary of National Institutes of Health. Corbett’s team studies coronaviruses. Her work in particular, began with the MERS outbreak and now the coronavirus pandemic.
“In pandemic preparedness, our job as vaccinologists, enviro-immunologists, immunologists, epidemiologists, is to plan ahead of time, so that we had a vaccine ready to go, in case there was a pandemic like there is now,” Corbett said. “So, what you are witnessing when you hear things about our vaccine, which is being developed in collaboration with Moderna, a biotechnical company, is a response effort towards getting a vaccine into general population.”