About the Authors

Chaoxing Yang

Affiliation Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Agata Jurczyk

Affiliation Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Philip diIorio

Affiliation Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Elaine Norowski

Affiliation Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Michael A. Brehm

Affiliation Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Christian W. Grant

Affiliation Biomedical Research Models, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Dennis L. Guberski

Affiliation Biomedical Research Models, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Dale L. Greiner

Affiliation Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Rita Bortell

*E-mail: rita.bortell@umassmed.edu

Affiliation Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America

Competing Interests

Dennis L. Guberski is President and C.E.O. and Christian W. Grant is a salaried employee of Biomedical Research Models. This does not alter their adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CY EN MAB CWG DLG RB. Performed the experiments: CY AJ EN. Analyzed the data: CY AJ PdI MAB CWG DLG RB. Wrote the manuscript: CY AJ PdI CWG DLG RB.