Meet the Women behind the New Covid-19 Vaccines
If this new year turns out to be better than 2020, we can thank the scientists who fast-tracked successful vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic. You may have heard that country singer Dolly Parton donated $1 million toward development of the Moderna vaccine, but did you know that many of the R&D teams were led by women? When the world gets to know their names and faces, we suspect that these researchers will inspire a generation of girls to become scientists.
Dr. Özlem Türeci
Dr. Özlem Türeci, chief medical officer at the German biotech firm BioNTech, is part of the husband-and-wife team that developed the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, the first to gain approval in the US. Their mRNA vaccine is more than 95 percent effective and is the world’s first approved vaccine that uses the breakthrough of mRNA (Messenger RNA). The vaccine inserts DNA that teaches the body to make proteins that can recognize and attack an invader—in this case, spike proteins to take on Covid-19.
Kathrin Jansen
Kathrin Jansen, head of Pfizer’s vaccine research and development, teamed up with BioNTech and led her company first across the finish line. Throughout her 36-year career, Jansen has taken on tough challenges. At Merck, she persuaded skeptical colleagues to work on a vaccine for HPV, which can cause cervical cancer. (The result, Gardasil, is one of only two vaccines available that can prevent cancer.) At Wyeth she spearheaded a vaccine that prevents meningitis in children and pneumonia in older adults. “She’s exactly who you want in that position,” said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “She fights for the vaccines she thinks are important.”
Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett
Dr. Anthony Fauci recently highlighted Dr. Kizzmekia (“Kizzy”) Corbett as one of the lead scientists behind the Moderna vaccine, developed at his National Institutes of Health (NIH) lab. Corbett may be just 34, but she has been preparing for this moment her whole life. “I was the student who would not leave a math problem unsolved,” she told CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta. “I won regional science fairs all the way from elementary school and onward.” She started working for NIH after a high school internship at the lab. After the sprint to develop a vaccine, Corbett is ready to take on her next challenge: to build trust for it among African Americans, a group disproportionately impacted by Covid-19 but whose mistrust for the healthcare system is based on a long history of injustice and inequity. It won’t be easy, but fortunately, Corbett is a scientist who has never shied away from a challenge.
Sarah Gilbert & Teresa Lambe
Sarah Gilbert (left), who led the team at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute that developed the AstraZeneca vaccine, brought decades of experience to the Covid-19 challenge. She has worked on vaccines for malaria, Ebola, and Mers (Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, another coronavirus). In January, when China shared the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus, Oxford group leader Teresa Lambe (right) received it on a Saturday morning, and by Monday she had developed the template that would become Oxford’s vaccine. Oxford’s greatest victory, though, is its insistence that AstraZeneca make the vaccine available at cost in low- and middle-income countries. At $3 a dose, the vaccine will save countless lives in a world devastated by Covid-19.