On Sept. 29, 2020, the NIH announed that researchers had designed ﾓminiproteinsﾔ that bound tightly to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and prevented the virus from infecting human cells in the lab. The researchers led by Dr. David Baker of the University of Washington set out to design synthetic ﾓminiproteinsﾔ that bind tightly to the coronavirus spike protein.