About the Authors

Matt Shipman

mshipman59714@gmail.com

Affiliation Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Kirk Lubick

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Molecular Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

David Fouchard

Affiliation Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Rajani Gurram

Affiliation Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Paul Grieco

Affiliation Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Mark Jutila

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Molecular Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Edward A. Dratz

Affiliation Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Competing Interests

EAD and PG are founders and shareholders in Zdye LLC, which licenses patents issued to Montana State University for the Zdye detection reagents used in the present study. Zdye LLC provides research grants to Montana State University for development of Zdyes and related technology. Patents: Dratz EA and Grieco PA. Novel Zwitterionic Fluorescent Dyes for Labeling in Proteomic and Other Biological Analyses. USA patent issued: Number 7,582,260, 9/1/2009, Montana State University. Dratz EA and Grieco PA. Novel Zwitterionic Fluorescent Dyes for Labeling in Proteomic and Other Biological Analyses. Methods Claims. USA patent issued, Number 7,833,799, Montana State University, 11/16/2010. Dratz EA and Grieco PA. Novel Optical Labeling Molecules for Proteomics and Other Biological Analyses, Montana State University, PCT application US2008/059963. 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.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MS KL MJ EAD. Performed the experiments: MS KL DF RG. Analyzed the data: MS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KL DF RG MJ PG. Wrote the paper: MS KL MJ EAD.