About the Authors

Jan-Peter Sowa

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Dominik Heider

Affiliation Department of Bioinformatics, Center for Medical Biotechnology, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Lars Peter Bechmann

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Guido Gerken

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Daniel Hoffmann

Affiliation Department of Bioinformatics, Center for Medical Biotechnology, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Ali Canbay

ali.canbay@uni-due.de

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Sample acquisition and data collection: LPB AC. Obtained funding: GG AC. Conceived and designed the experiments: JPS D. Heider AC. Performed the experiments: JPS D. Heider. Analyzed the data: JPS D. Heider D. Hoffman. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GG D. Hoffman. Wrote the paper: JPS D. Heider LPB AC.