--- title: Kizzmekia Corbett Is on the TIME100 Next 2021 List description: Find out how Kizzmekia Corbett is shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership. canonical: https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937718/kizzmekia-corbett/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-02-17T01:10:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:47:57.449Z og:title: 2021 TIME100 Next: Kizzmekia Corbett og:description: Find out why Kizzmekia Corbett is on this year’s TIME100 Next list og:url: https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937718/kizzmekia-corbett/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt50d8a9dc808827e7/698a1718929fad4892bf7141/time100-next-Kizzmekia-Corbett.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2021 TIME100 Next: Kizzmekia Corbett og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 2021 TIME100 Next: Kizzmekia Corbett twitter:description: Find out why Kizzmekia Corbett is on this year’s TIME100 Next list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt50d8a9dc808827e7/698a1718929fad4892bf7141/time100-next-Kizzmekia-Corbett.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Feb 17, 2021 # Kizzmekia Corbett by Anthony Fauci  WHEATON, MD - 25 SEPT 2020: Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett is photographed on September 25, 2020 in Wheaton, Maryland. Dr. Corbett, a viral immunologist at the National Institutes of Health, heads a team of researchers helping the U.S. government’s find a Coronavirus vaccine. Dr. Corbett will be a speaker during the 2020 #BlackInMicro Week celebration of black microbiologists and virtual panel discussions. Photo by Timothy Nwachukwu for The New York Times WHEATON, MD - 25 SEPT 2020: Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett is photographed on September 25, 2020 in Wheaton, Maryland. Dr. Corbett, a viral immunologist at the National Institutes of Health, heads a team of researchers helping the U.S. government’s find a Coronavirus vaccine. Dr. Corbett will be a speaker during the 2020 #BlackInMicro Week celebration of black microbiologists and virtual panel discussions. Photo by Timothy Nwachukwu for The New York TimesTimothy Nwachukwu Kizzmekia Corbett, the scientific lead of the Vaccine Research Center’s coronavirus team at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is widely recognized in the immunology community as a rising star. For the past six years, she has focused on coronavirus biology and vaccine development. During the pandemic, those years of research led to the discovery that a stabilized version of a spike protein found on the surface of all coronaviruses can be a key target for vaccines, treatments and diagnostics. She and her colleagues have been central to the development of the [Moderna mRNA vaccine](https://time.com/5927342/mrna-covid-vaccine/) and the Eli Lilly therapeutic monoclonal antibody that were first to enter clinical trials in the U.S. and now have authorization for emergency use. As a result, her work will have a substantial impact on ending the worst respiratory-disease pandemic in more than 100 years. _Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the U.S. National Institutes of Health_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937718/kizzmekia-corbett/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937718/kizzmekia-corbett/"},"headline":"Kizzmekia Corbett","datePublished":"2021-02-17T01:10:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:47:57.449Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937718/kizzmekia-corbett/","keywords":["list","franchise","TIME 100 Next"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt50d8a9dc808827e7/698a1718929fad4892bf7141/time100-next-Kizzmekia-Corbett.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt50d8a9dc808827e7/698a1718929fad4892bf7141/time100-next-Kizzmekia-Corbett.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937718/kizzmekia-corbett/","name":"Kizzmekia Corbett"}}]}] ```