About the Authors

Lena Bengestrate

Current address: Institute for Biochemistry II, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

Affiliation Department of Epigenetics, QIAGEN GmbH, Hilden, Germany

Sam Virtue

Affiliation Metabolic Research Laboratories, Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Mark Campbell

Affiliation Metabolic Research Laboratories, Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Antonio Vidal-Puig

Affiliation Metabolic Research Laboratories, Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Dirk Hadaschik

Affiliation Department of Epigenetics, QIAGEN GmbH, Hilden, Germany

Peter Hahn

Affiliation Department of Epigenetics, QIAGEN GmbH, Hilden, Germany

Wolfgang Bielke

wolfgang.bielke@qiagen.com

Affiliation Department of Epigenetics, QIAGEN GmbH, Hilden, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors DH, PH, and WB are currently employees within the R&D department of QIAGEN GmbH and declare potential competing financial interests, including personal ownership of QIAGEN stocks and/or stock options. Several commercially available products, marketed by QIAGEN, were employed for this study. These products include kits and items for nucleic acid isolation and amplification, as well as the miScript system for microRNA detection. QIAGEN holds several issued and pending patents related to these products. The above said does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PloS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LB SV MC AV-P DH PH WB. Performed the experiments: LB SV MC PH. Analyzed the data: LB SV MC AV-P DH PH WB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SV MC AV-P. Wrote the paper: LB PH DH WB.