About the Authors

Francisco R. Saenz

Affiliation Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

Virginie Ory

Affiliation Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

Maram AlOtaiby

Affiliation Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

Sonia Rosenfield

Affiliation Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

Mary Furlong

Affiliation Department of Pathology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

Luciane R. Cavalli

Affiliation Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

Michael D. Johnson

Affiliation Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

Xuefeng Liu

Affiliation Department of Pathology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

Richard Schlegel

Affiliation Department of Pathology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

Anton Wellstein

Affiliation Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

Anna T. Riegel

ariege01@georgetown.edu

Affiliation Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

Competing Interests

Georgetown University has a patent pending on the cell reprogramming technology (Immortalizing Epithelial Cells and Methods of Use, Application No. 13/885,078) and has licensed the technology to a new biotechnology company, Propagenix (www.propagenix.com). Georgetown University also has founding equity in Propagenix. RS and XL are Professors at Georgetown University who are consultants to Propagenix and RS has founding equity in the company. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AR XL RS AW. Performed the experiments: FS VO LC. Analyzed the data: MA SR MF LC MJ AR AW FS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MJ XL RS. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: FS VO MA SR MF LC MJ AR XL RS AW.