About the Authors

Michelle M. Merrigan

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, Illinois, United States of America

Anilrudh Venugopal

Affiliation St. John's Hospital and Medical Center and Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan, United States of America

Jennifer L. Roxas

Affiliation Department of Immunobiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America

Farhan Anwar

Affiliation Department of Immunobiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America

Michael J. Mallozzi

Affiliation Department of Immunobiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America

Bryan A. P. Roxas

Affiliation Department of Immunobiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America

Dale N. Gerding

Affiliations Hines VA Hospital, Hines, Illinois, United States of America, Division of Infectious Diseases, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, Illinois, United States of America

V. K. Viswanathan

Affiliations School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Department of Immunobiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America, The Bio5 Institute for Collaborative Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America

Gayatri Vedantam

gayatri@email.arizona.edu

Affiliations School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Department of Immunobiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America, The Bio5 Institute for Collaborative Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America, Southern Arizona VA Healthcare System, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and report the following conflicts: Author Dale Gerding, M.D. holds patents for the treatment and prevention of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) licensed to ViroPharma, and is a consultant for Merck, ViroPharma, Pfizer, GSK, Roche, Novartis, Optimer, Cubist, BioRelix, Cangene, Medicines Co., MikrobEx and Atelion, and holds research grants from GOJO, and Sanofi-Pasteur. Author Dale Gerding, M.D. is the patent holder and the patents have been licensed to ViroPharma, Inc., Exton, PA. Patent details: 1. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: Methods and Compositions for Prevention and Treatment of Clostridium difficile-Associated Diseases. Filed 9/15/95, PCT/US96/14868. Patent issued October 21, 2003, US Patent No. 6,635,260. 2. Canadian Intellectual Property Office: Methods and Compositions for Prevention and Treatment of Clostridium difficile-Associated Diseases. Patent issued December 10, 2002, Canadian Patent No. 2,232,001. 3. European Patent Office: Methods and Compositions for the Prevention and Treatment of Clostridium difficile-Associated Diseases. Patent issued November 11, 2005. Patent No. 0952773. 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: MMM GV. Performed the experiments: MMM JLR AAV FA BAPR. Analyzed the data: MMM AAV DNG VKV MM BAPR GV. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: VKV MM. Wrote the paper: MMM GV VKV.