About the Authors

Jose Silva

Contributed equally to this work with: Jose Silva, Ornella Barrandon

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jcs64@cscr.cam.ac.uk (JS); austin.smith@cscr.cam.ac.uk (AS)

Affiliations Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom , Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Ornella Barrandon

Contributed equally to this work with: Jose Silva, Ornella Barrandon

Affiliations Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom , Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Jennifer Nichols

Affiliations Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom , Department of Physiology, Development, and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Jitsutaro Kawaguchi

Affiliations Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom , Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Thorold W Theunissen

Affiliations Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom , Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Austin Smith

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jcs64@cscr.cam.ac.uk (JS); austin.smith@cscr.cam.ac.uk (AS)

Affiliations Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom , Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

A patent application based on this work has been filed with the United Kingdom patent office by the University of Cambridge (inventors Jose Silva and Austin Smith).

Author Contributions

JS and OB contributed equally to the generation and experimental characterisation of iPS cells. JN produced chimaeras. JK performed Southern hybridisation. and TT performed real time RT-PCR measurements. AS and JS designed and supervised the study and wrote the paper.