About the Authors

Bindesh Shrestha

Contributed equally to this work with: Bindesh Shrestha, Prabhakar Sripadi

Affiliation Department of Chemistry, W. M. Keck Institute for Proteomics Technology and Applications, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., United States of America

Prabhakar Sripadi

Contributed equally to this work with: Bindesh Shrestha, Prabhakar Sripadi

Current address: National Centre for Mass Spectrometry, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Tarnaka, Hyderabad, India

Affiliation Department of Chemistry, W. M. Keck Institute for Proteomics Technology and Applications, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., United States of America

Brent R. Reschke

Affiliation Protea Biosciences, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America

Holly D. Henderson

Affiliation Protea Biosciences, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America

Matthew J. Powell

Affiliation Protea Biosciences, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America

Sally A. Moody

Affiliation Department of Anatomy and Regenerative Biology, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., United States of America

Akos Vertes

vertes@gwu.edu

Affiliation Department of Chemistry, W. M. Keck Institute for Proteomics Technology and Applications, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., United States of America

Competing Interests

Co-author Akos Vertes is a PLOS ONE Editorial Board member. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE Editorial policies and criteria. Co-authors Brent R. Reschke, Holly D. Henderson, and Matthew J. Powell, are employed by a commercial company, Protea Biosciences. The corresponding author, Akos Vertes, is a co-inventor of the LAESI technique, and is named as inventor on the related patents listed below. United States Patent: US 8,067,730 B2, dated 11/29/2011, and continuations US 8,487,244 B2, dated 7/16/2013 and US 8,809,774 B2, dated 8/19/2014. Title: Laser Ablation Electrospray Ionization (LAESI) for Atmospheric Pressure, In Vivo and Imaging Mass Spectrometry. Dr. Vertes is on the scientific advisory board of Protea Biosciences. Protea Biosciences markets a product, LAESI DP-1000, built on the LAESI. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AV SAM. Performed the experiments: BS PS. Analyzed the data: BS PS BRS HDH MJP SAM AV. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SAM. Wrote the paper: BS PS BRS HDH MJP SAM AV.