About the Authors
- Takenori Ishida
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Contributed equally to this work with: Takenori Ishida, Maxym Alexandrov
Affiliation Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
- Maxym Alexandrov
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Contributed equally to this work with: Takenori Ishida, Maxym Alexandrov
Affiliation Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
- Tomoki Nishimura
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Affiliation Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
- Ryuichi Hirota
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Affiliation Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
- Takeshi Ikeda
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Affiliation Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
- Akio Kuroda
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* E-mail: akuroda@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
Affiliation Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
Competing Interests
The authors have the following interests. AK is inventor on a patent issued to Hiroshima University that covers several asbestos-binding proteins: ASBESTOS DETECTION METHOD, ASBESTOS DETECTION AGENT, ASBESTOS DETECTION KIT AND METHOD OF SCREENING CANDIDATE FOR DRUG AIMING AT PREVENTING OR TREATING DISEASE CAUSED OR WORSENED BY ASBESTOS, patent application: WO/2007/055243. The patent does not alter the authors' ability to adhere to all PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
Author Contributions
Conceived and designed the experiments: T. Ishida MA TN RH T. Ikeda AK. Performed the experiments: T. Ishida MA TN. Analyzed the data: T. Ishida MA TN RH T. Ikeda AK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: T. Ishida MA TN. Wrote the manuscript: T. Ishida MA AK.