About the Authors

Simon F. Thomas

Affiliation Plymouth Martine Laboratory Applications Ltd, Plymouth, United Kingdom

Paul Rooks

Affiliation Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, United Kingdom

Fabian Rudin

Affiliation Plymouth Martine Laboratory Applications Ltd, Plymouth, United Kingdom

Sov Atkinson

Affiliation Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, United Kingdom

Paul Goddard

Affiliation Protein Technologies Ltd, Manchester, United Kingdom

Rachel Bransgrove

Affiliation Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, United Kingdom

Paul T. Mason

Affiliation Plymouth Martine Laboratory Applications Ltd, Plymouth, United Kingdom

Michael J. Allen

mija@pml.ac.uk

Affiliation Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The authors expect to develop a technology platform to treat contaminated water based on the results described herein. PG of Protein Technologies Ltd (PTL) will be responsible for the protection and commercialisation of this technology; PML Applications and Plymouth Marine Laboratory (of which SFT/FR/PTM and PR/SA/RB/MJA are employees, respectively) have a royalty agreement with PTL for any revenue generated through such activities. It is envisioned that the technology platform will be made freely available in the developing world for humanitarian purposes. 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: SFT SA MJA. Performed the experiments: SFT PR FR SA RB PTM MJA. Analyzed the data: SFT SA PG MJA. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SFT PG MJA. Wrote the paper: SFT SA PG MJA.