On Apr. 2, 2020, an international team led by University of British Columbia researcher Dr. Josef Penninger announced they had found a trial drug that effectively blocked the cellular door SARS-CoV-2 uses to infect its hosts. The findings, published in Cell, hold promise as a treatment capable of stopping early infection of the novel coronavirus that, as of Apr. 2, has affected more than 981,000 people and claimed the lives of 50,000 people worldwide.