This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. A novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. The illness caused by this virus has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). (CDC/Alissa Eckert, MS)

Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center are planning a randomized, controlled trial to evaluate a form of allogeneic cell therapy for COVID-19, after four out of six patients critically ill with the disease recovered well enough following infusions of the cells to be discharged from the hospital. The remaining two patients who received the treatment are also alive, in the hospital.