Dr. Lorenz Studer was part of a team of researchers from MSK and Weill Cornell that screened over 1,000 FDA-approved drugs and traditional medicines to determine which, if any, could block the Zika Virus in human fetal brain cells. The team found that the compound hippeastrine hydrobromide, an active ingredient of the medicinal plant Lycoris radiata (red spider lily), was able to not only block the infection in the fetal brain cells, but also eliminated preexisting Zika infection. The compound also showed promise in infected brains of adult mice.