After infection with non-integrating Sendai viruses (SeV) expressing SOX2 and c-MYC, we found that a medium condition supplemented with the GSK3β inhibitor CHIR99021 (CHIR), the Hedgehog activator purmorphamine, the ALK-5 inhibitor A83-01, recombinant human LIF (hLIF), and tranylcypromine (Tranyl) together with a hypoxic atmosphere enables fast and efficient neural cell fate conversion. Here, SOX2 is linked to infection.