About the Authors

Angelo Cerbone

Contributed equally to this work with: Angelo Cerbone, Cristina Toaldo

Affiliation MerckSerono Ivrea – RBM S.p.A., Istituto di Ricerche Biomediche "A. Marxer", Colleretto Giacosa, Turin, Italy

Cristina Toaldo

Contributed equally to this work with: Angelo Cerbone, Cristina Toaldo

Affiliation Section of General Pathology, Department of Medicine and Experimental Oncology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Rosalba Minelli

Affiliation Department of Science and Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Eric Ciamporcero

Affiliation Section of General Pathology, Department of Medicine and Experimental Oncology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Stefania Pizzimenti

Affiliation Section of General Pathology, Department of Medicine and Experimental Oncology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Piergiorgio Pettazzoni

Affiliation Section of General Pathology, Department of Medicine and Experimental Oncology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Guglielmo Roma

Affiliation MerckSerono Ivrea – RBM S.p.A., Istituto di Ricerche Biomediche "A. Marxer", Colleretto Giacosa, Turin, Italy

Mario Umberto Dianzani

Affiliation Section of General Pathology, Department of Medicine and Experimental Oncology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Chiara Ullio

Affiliation Section of General Pathology, Department of Medicine and Experimental Oncology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Carlo Ferretti

Affiliation Department of Science and Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Chiara Dianzani

Affiliation Department of Science and Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Giuseppina Barrera

giuseppina.barrera@unito.it

Affiliation Section of General Pathology, Department of Medicine and Experimental Oncology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Competing Interests

AC and GR are employed by MerckSerono Ivrea – RBM S.p.A. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GB CD MUD CT AC. Performed the experiments: AC CT RM EC SP PP CU. Analyzed the data: GR CF. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CF CD GB AC. Wrote the paper: GB.