Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells with CytoTune, a Non-Integrating Sendai Virus

One of the major obstacles in generating induced pluripotent stem cells for research or downstream applications is the potential modi fi cations of the cellular genome as a result of using integrating viruses during reprogramming. Another major disadvantage of reprogramming cells with integrating vectors is that silencing and activation of transgenes is unpredictable, which may affect terminal differentiation potential and increase the risk of using iPSC-derived cells. Here we describe a protocol for the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells using a non-integrating RNA virus, Sendai virus, to ef fi ciently generate transgene-free iPSCs starting with different cell types as well as in feeder-free conditions.