About the Authors

Kristin Wahl

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

William Rosenberg

Affiliation Centre for Hepatology, University College London Institute of Liver and Digestive Health, Division of Medicine, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Bernhard Vaske

Affiliation Institute of Biometry, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Michael P. Manns

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Klaus Schulze-Osthoff

Affiliation Interfaculty Institute of Biochemistry, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Matthias J. Bahr

Affiliation Sana Kliniken, Lübeck, Germany

Heike Bantel

Bantel.Heike@mh-hannover.de

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Competing Interests

WR is an inventor of the ELF test and has received support for research studies and speaking events from Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc. The proprietary assays developed for the ELF test by Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc. (Tarrytown, New York, United States of America) were used and analyses were performed on an Immuno-1 auto-analyser (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc., Tarrytown, New York, United States of America). There are no further 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: HB, MJB, KSO, MPM, WR. Performed the experiments: KW, WR. Analyzed the data: HB, MJB, KSO, MPM, WR, KW, BV, MJB. Wrote the paper: HB, WR, KSO.