About the Authors

Justin B. Schaal

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Dat Tran

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Patti Tran

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

George Ösapay

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America

Katie Trinh

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Kevin D. Roberts

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Kathleen M. Brasky

Affiliation Texas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, United States of America

Prasad Tongaonkar

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

André J. Ouellette

Affiliations Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Kenneth Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Michael E. Selsted

selsted@usc.edu

Affiliations Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Kenneth Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: Michael E. Selsted is a member of Resolve Therapeutics, LLC, an entity that has optioned technology related to the therapeutic development of theta defensins for the treatment of systemic inflammation. A number of U.S. Patents have issued, all of which are assigned to the University of California (Antimicrobial Theta defensins U.S. 6,335,318 January 1, 2002, Antimicrobial theta defensins and methods of using same, U.S. 6,514,727 Feb. 4, 2003, U.S. 6,890,537 May 10, 2005, U.S. 7,399,823 B1 July 15, 2008, Antimicrobial theta defensins, analogs thereof, and methods of use, U.S. 7,119,070 October 10, 2006, U.S. 7,462,598 Dec. 9, 2008). 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: JS DT GO KR KB PT AO MS. Performed the experiments: JS DT GO KT KR KB PT. Analyzed the data: JS DT GO KR KB PT AO MS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DT GO KR PT AO MS. Wrote the paper: JS DT PT AO MS.