About the Authors

Andreas Hoffmann

Affiliation Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

Michael Kovermann

Affiliation Institute of Physics, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

Hauke Lilie

Affiliation Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

Markus Fiedler

Affiliation Scil Proteins GmbH, Halle, Germany

Jochen Balbach

Affiliation Institute of Physics, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

Rainer Rudolph

Affiliation Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

Sven Pfeifer

sven.pfeifer@biochemtech.uni-halle.de

Affiliation Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

Competing Interests

MF is an employee of Scil Proteins GmbH, a company that develops therapeutics based upon ubiquitin. RR was shareholder of Scil Proteins GmbH. MF and RR are co-inventors of a patent, “Generation of artificial binding proteins on the basis of ubiquitin proteins” (Int. Pat. WO 2004-106368). No products in development or marketed products based on the research presented in the manuscript have to be declared. 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: AH MK HL MF JB RR SP. Performed the experiments: AH MK HL. Analyzed the data: AH MK HL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AH HL MF JB RR SP. Wrote the paper: AH MK HL MF JB SP.