About the Authors

Jae Young So

Contributed equally to this work with: Jae Young So, Janice J. Lin

Affiliation Department of Chemical Biology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey, United States of America

Janice J. Lin

Contributed equally to this work with: Jae Young So, Janice J. Lin

Affiliation Department of Chemical Biology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey, United States of America

Joseph Wahler

Affiliation Department of Chemical Biology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey, United States of America

Karen T. Liby

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America

Michael B. Sporn

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America

Nanjoo Suh

nsuh@pharmacy.rutgers.edu

Affiliations Department of Chemical Biology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey, United States of America, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America

Competing Interests

Michael Sporn, Karen Liby and Nanjoo Suh are inventors on patents dealing with chemical synthesis of new triterpenoids and their application in treatment of cancer, as well as in inflammatory diseases, including human kidney disease (patent 6,974,801 issued 1/1/2004). They strongly adhere to the PLOS ONE policy on sharing of data and materials. The laboratory has a long history of being extremely free in sharing of materials and data, with no strings attached, with other laboratories throughout the world. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JS JJL JW NS. Performed the experiments: JS JJL. Analyzed the data: JS JJL NS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KTL MS JS JJL JW. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: JS JJL KTL MBS NS.