About the Authors

Michael A. Rubin

Michael.Rubin@hsc.utah.edu

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine, George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America

Makoto Jones

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine, George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America

Molly Leecaster

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine, George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America

Karim Khader

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America

Willy Ray

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America

Angela Huttner

Affiliation Infection Control Program, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland

Benedikt Huttner

Affiliation Infection Control Program, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland

Damon Toth

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America

Theodore Sablay

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine, George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America

Robert J. Borotkanics

Affiliation Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Dale N. Gerding

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Edward Hines Jr. Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital, Hines, Illinois, United States of America

Matthew H. Samore

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine, George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America

Competing Interests

DNG is a consultant for ViroPharma, Cubist, Merck, Cangene, Roche, Novartis, Summit, Daiichi Sankyo and Actelion. GOJO Industries, Inc. provided funding towards this study. Also, one of the authors (DNG) holds patents relevant to the material presented in this study for the prevention of Clostridium difficile infection licensed to ViroPharma. The patents are as follows: 1. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: Methods and Compositions for Prevention and Treatment of Clostridium difficile-Associated Diseases. Filed 9/15/95, PCT/US96/14868. Patent issued October 21, 2003, US Patent No. 6,635,260. 2. Canadian Intellectual Property Office: Methods and Compositions for Prevention and Treatment of Clostridium difficile-Associated Diseases. Patent issued December 10, 2002, Canadian Patent No. 2,232,001. 3. European Patent Office: Methods and Compositions for the Prevention and Treatment of Clostridium difficile-Associated Diseases. Patent issued November 11, 2005. Patent No. 0952773. 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: MAR MJ ML AH BH KK MHS. Performed the experiments: MAR MJ ML WR KK DT MHS. Analyzed the data: MAR MJ ML KK DG MHS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: ML WR KK DT. Wrote the paper: MAR MJ ML AH BH KK DT TS RB MHS. Table/Figure design: MAR MJ ML. Model Design: MAR WR KK DT. Literature Search and Model Parameterization: MJ AH BH KK TS.