About the Authors

Padmapriya P. Banada

Affiliation Division for Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, New Jersey Medical School – University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey, United States of America

Soumitesh Chakravorty

Affiliation Division for Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, New Jersey Medical School – University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey, United States of America

Darshini Shah

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, New Jersey Medical School – University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey, United States of America

Michele Burday

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, New Jersey Medical School – University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey, United States of America

Fermina M. Mazzella

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, New Jersey Medical School – University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey, United States of America

David Alland

allandda@umdnj.edu

Affiliation Division for Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, New Jersey Medical School – University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey, United States of America

Competing Interests

D.A. is one of a group of co-investigators who invented molecular beacon technology and who receive income from licensees, including a license to Cepheid for M. tuberculosis detection. 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: PPB SC DA. Performed the experiments: PPB SC. Analyzed the data: PPB SC DS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MB FMM DA. Wrote the paper: PPB DA. Collected patient records for blood culture data: DS. Saved and stored blood tubes: FMM.