About the Authors

Cherith N. Reid

Affiliation Molecular Biology, Randox Laboratories, Crumlin, Northern Ireland

Michael Stevenson

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queens University Belfast; Belfast, Northern Ireland

Funso Abogunrin

Affiliation Centre for Cancer Research & Cell Biology, Queens University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Mark W. Ruddock

Affiliation Molecular Biology, Randox Laboratories, Crumlin, Northern Ireland

Frank Emmert-Streib

Affiliation Centre for Cancer Research & Cell Biology, Queens University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland

John V. Lamont

Affiliation Molecular Biology, Randox Laboratories, Crumlin, Northern Ireland

Kate E. Williamson

k.williamson@qub.ac.uk

Affiliation Centre for Cancer Research & Cell Biology, Queens University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Competing Interests

The following authors on the paper, MR, CR, JL and KW, are named inventors on British Patent Number 0916193.6 which protects the biomarkers in the algorithms. In addition, MR, CR and JL are employees of Randox Laboratories Ltd. who undertook the biomarker analyses using multianalyte biochip technology. Randox funded the salary of FA who recruited the patients over two years. This does not alter the authros’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CNR FA JL KW. Performed the experiments: CNR MR. Analyzed the data: MS FES KW. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JL. Wrote the paper: CNR FA MR KW.