• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • WATCH NEWS
    • WHAT’S ON FOX
  • ABOUT
    • Meet Our Team
      • Our Journalists
      • Sales & Programming
    • Contact WSFX
      • Sales & Programming
  • Montford Point
  • Welcome Home

Fox Wilmington WSFX-TV

Wilmington, NC | Local news Weather and Sports

  • Local News
    • Unsung Heroes
      • Nominate an Unsung Hero
  • Local Weather
  • National
  • Sports
    • Carolina Panthers
    • Panthers Game Schedule
  • Politics
    • NC Voter Information
  • Health
  • Entertainment
    • What’s on TV?
  • MORE…
    • Technology
    • Science
    • Lifestyle
    • What’s Happening Wilmington

N.C. scientist named among heroes of the year by Time magazine for COVID-19 vaccine efforts

December 14, 2021 By WECT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – A scientist from Hillsborough, North Carolina who has made a big difference in the fight against COVID-19 has been named one of Time magazine’s “Heroes of the Year.”

Time magazine recognized four specific scientists from the coronavirus team at the Vaccine Research Center, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, Barney Graham, Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, in this listing of Heroes of the Year.

Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett is a Ph.D. graduate in microbiology and immunology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Corbett has widespread recognition by health leaders as someone who played an instrumental role in the development of the Moderna Vaccine and the Eli Lilly therapeutic monoclonal antibody.

She is the scientific lead of the coronavirus team at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Her focus at the Vaccine Research Center was to figure out the best ways to target coronaviruses, like SARS-COV-2.

The Time magazine article mentions that Dr. Corbett predicts the research from her team of scientists will help humanity defend against other viruses that may emerge in coming years.

“If we as scientists learn how to make a vaccine for a cousin in a viral family, and one of those cousins decides to make a pandemic,” Dr. Corbett said, “then we’ll be ready, because we can apply the knowledge from one virus and vaccine to another in a plug-and-play way.”

In a previous TIME Magazine story about Dr. Corbett, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, wrote that Dr. Corbett “is widely recognized in the immunology community as a rising star.”

Dr. Fauci says for the past six years, Dr. Corbett has focused on coronavirus biology and vaccine development, and that her work will have “a substantial impact on ending the worst respiratory-disease pandemic in more than 100 years.”

“We have taken a lot of the knowledge that we have gained over the last six years and applied it to a fairly revolutionary vaccine platform in collaboration with Moderna,” Corbett told CBS News.

In March 2020, Corbett walked then President Donald Trump through research at the National Institutes of Health. Two weeks after the tour, Corbett and her team started the first stage of clinical trials. The distribution of the Moderna vaccine came about within 10 months.

“The vaccine teaches the body how to fend off a virus, because it teaches the body, how to look for the virus by basically just showing the body the spike protein of the virus,” Corbett explained to CBS News. “The body then says, oh, we’ve seen this protein before. Let’s go fight against it. That’s how it works.”

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper tweeted about Dr. Corbett’s recognition.

“Dr. Corbett’s work helped save countless lives. This honor is well deserved. Congratulations Dr. Corbett.,” Gov. Cooper wrote.

Copyright 2021 WBTV. All rights reserved.

Filed Under: Special Coverage: Coronavirus

Primary Sidebar

 

Follow Us On Facebook



TRENDING NOW

Here’s your chance to give back on #GivingTuesday

Medical marijuana bill aims to give options to those with PTSD, Cancer, HIV, and more

Holocaust survivor is finally reunited with the family that saved his life

Five lawsuits settled in Carteret County plane crash that killed 8 people

George Clooney opens up about having Bell’s palsy as teenager: ‘Half of my face is paralyzed’

‘Sopranos’ star John Ventimiglia’s daughter Odele dead at 25

Footer

PUBLIC FILE INFO

Individuals with disabilities who have questions about the content of our public file or website may contact Isabella Gano by phone at
(910) 343-8826 or by email at Isabella.gano@foxwilmington.com

 
 » WSFX FCC Public File
»EEO Report
»Closed Captioning

SITE MAP

  • Local Headlines
  • Coronavirus
  • Local Weather
  • National Headlines
  • Sports
  • Politics
  • Health

WSFX TV

  • Livestream Newscast
  • Meet Our Team
  • Sales & Programming
  • WELCOME HOME
  • Go With The Pros
  • Medically Speaking
  • WHAT’S ON FOX

Copyright © 2023 · American Spirit Media LLC · WSFX TV · Wilmington NC · Terms of Service · Privacy Policy