About the Authors

Ulla Ruffing

Affiliation Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Saarland University Medical Center, Homburg/Saar, Germany

Ruslan Akulenko

Affiliation Center for Bioinformatics, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany

Markus Bischoff

Affiliation Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Saarland University Medical Center, Homburg/Saar, Germany

Volkhard Helms

Affiliation Center for Bioinformatics, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany

Mathias Herrmann

Affiliation Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Saarland University Medical Center, Homburg/Saar, Germany

Lutz von Müller

lutz.mueller@uks.eu

Affiliation Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Saarland University Medical Center, Homburg/Saar, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have the following interests: Alere Inc. supported this study by supplying the IdentiBAC ArrayMateTM Reader and the imaging software Iconoclust. 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.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: UR RA MB VH MH LvM. Performed the experiments: UR LvM. Analyzed the data: UR RA MB MH VH LvM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: UR RA MB VH MH LvM. Wrote the paper: UR VH MH LvM.