About the Authors

Albert D. Donnenberg

donnenbergvs@upmc.edu (VSD); donnenbergad@upmc.edu (ADD)

Affiliations Hillman Cancer Center, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Ludovic Zimmerlin

Affiliation Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Rodney J. Landreneau

Affiliation Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

James D. Luketich

Affiliation Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Vera S. Donnenberg

donnenbergvs@upmc.edu (VSD); donnenbergad@upmc.edu (ADD)

Affiliations Hillman Cancer Center, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: Drs. Vera and Albert Donnenberg collaborated (without financial remuneration) with Applied Cytometry in the creation of VenturiOne software, used to analyze data in this manuscript. 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: ADD VSD. Performed the experiments: LZ VSD. Analyzed the data: ADD VSD. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: RJL JDL. Wrote the paper: ADD VSD.