About the Authors

Di Jiang

Affiliation Department of Medicine, National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado, United States of America

Mark L. Nelson

Affiliation Department of Immunology, National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado, United States of America

Fabienne Gally

Affiliation Department of Medicine, National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado, United States of America

Sean Smith

Affiliation Department of Medicine, National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado, United States of America

Qun Wu

Affiliation Department of Medicine, National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado, United States of America

Maisha Minor

Affiliation Department of Medicine, National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado, United States of America

Stephanie Case

Affiliation Department of Medicine, National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado, United States of America

Jyoti Thaikoottathil

Affiliation Department of Medicine, National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado, United States of America

Hong Wei Chu

chuhw@njhealth.org

Affiliations Department of Medicine, National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado, United States of America, Business and Science Development, Echelon Biosciences Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America

Competing Interests

Author Mark L. Nelson is employed by Echelon Biosciences and invented the compound (9-TB) which is currently off patent. 9-TB is commercially available from Mark Nelson at Echelon Biosciences Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. 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: DJ FG HWC. Performed the experiments: DJ FG SS QW MM SC JT HWC. Analyzed the data: DJ FG SS QW MM SC JT HWC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DJ MLN FG SS QW MM SC JT HWC. Wrote the paper: DJ.