About the Authors

Yujie Zhu

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Mohamed A. Hanafy

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Cheryl R. Killingsworth

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Gregory P. Walcott

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Martin E. Young

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Steven M. Pogwizd

spogwizd@uab.edu

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: YZ SMP. Performed the experiments: YZ. Analyzed the data: YZ MAH MEY SMP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: YZ CRK GPW MEY SMP. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: YZ MEY SMP.