About the Authors

Michael J. Tuvim

Affiliations Department of Pulmonary Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Center for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Brian E. Gilbert

Affiliation Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Burton F. Dickey

Affiliations Department of Pulmonary Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Center for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Scott E. Evans

seevans@mdanderson.org

Affiliations Department of Pulmonary Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Center for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: MJT, BFD, and SEE are authors on a related United States patent application entitled “Stimulation of Innate Resistance of the Lungs to Infection with Synthetic Ligands” (US Patent application 61/163,137, filed 3/25/09), and MJT and BFD are authors on a related patent entitled “Compositions and Methods for Stimulation of Lung Innate Immunity” (US patent application 60/833,857, filed 7/28/06). MJT, BFD, and SEE own stock in Pulmotect, Inc., which holds the commercial options on these patent disclosures. The other authors have no financial conflicts of interest. 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: SEE MJT BEG. Performed the experiments: MJT BEG. Analyzed the data: SEE MJT BEG BFD. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SEE MJT BEG BFD. Wrote the paper: SEE MJT BEG BFD.