About the Authors

Takehito Kaneko

tkaneko@anim.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Affiliation Institute of Laboratory Animals, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606–8501, Japan

Tomoji Mashimo

Affiliation Institute of Experimental Animal Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, 565–0871, Japan

Competing Interests

Kyoto University and NEPA GENE Co. Ltd. have obtained a patent for this method (patent no. 5774657). T.K. and T.M. are listed as inventors of the patent and will receive part of the revenue that it may generate. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: TK. Performed the experiments: TK. Analyzed the data: TK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TK TM. Wrote the paper: TK TM.