To monitor the transition from a PBC into a NSC fate, we assessed the expression of characteristic erythroblast-, neuroectoderm-, and pluripotency-associated genes at days 0, 3, 7, and 14 after infection (Supplementary Fig. 1), and detected a fast up-regulation of the neuroectodermal markers SOX2, PAX6, NES, and CDH2 with concomitant down-regulation of the erythroblast markers CD71 and CD117 within the first 2 weeks of conversion. This evidence concerns the gene SOX2 and infection.