About the Authors

Wai Yee Phong

Affiliations Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, Singapore, Singapore, Department of Microbiology, Immunology Programme, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

Wenwei Lin

Affiliations Department of Microbiology, Immunology Programme, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore, Singapore-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), CREATE NUS Campus, Singapore, Singapore

Srinivasa P. S. Rao

Affiliation Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, Singapore, Singapore

Thomas Dick

Current address: Department of Microbiology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

Affiliation Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, Singapore, Singapore

Sylvie Alonso

micas@nus.edu.sg

Affiliations Department of Microbiology, Immunology Programme, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore, Singapore-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), CREATE NUS Campus, Singapore, Singapore

Kevin Pethe

Current address: Institute Pasteur-Korea, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea

Affiliation Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, Singapore, Singapore

Competing Interests

WYP, SPSR, TD and KP are employed by Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases. Sylvie Alonso is a PLOS ONE Editorial Board member. The authors confirm that this does not alter their adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: WYP SA KP. Performed the experiments: WYP WL. Analyzed the data: WYP TD SA KP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SPSR. Wrote the paper: WYP SA KP.