About the Authors

Laura Labonté

Affiliations Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Respiratory Epidemiology and Clinical Research Unit (RECRU), Montreal Chest Institute, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Patrick Coulombe

Affiliation Respiratory Epidemiology and Clinical Research Unit (RECRU), Montreal Chest Institute, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Michela Zago

Affiliations Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Meakins-Christie Laboratories, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Jean Bourbeau

Affiliations Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Respiratory Epidemiology and Clinical Research Unit (RECRU), Montreal Chest Institute, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Carolyn J. Baglole

Carolyn.baglole@McGill.ca

Affiliations Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Meakins-Christie Laboratories, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Competing Interests

JB has the following competing interests: grants from the Canadian Institute of Health Research, CanCOLD Operating grant Collaborative program Rx & D (Almirall, Astra Zeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK, Merck, Novartis, Takeda) and the Canadian Respiratory Research Network (CRRN), grants from Fonds de Recherche du Quebec-Sante (FRQS) RHN COPD, research and educational grants from Almirall, Astra Zeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK, Merck, Novartis for investigator initiated projects. LL, PC, MZ and CJB have declared that no competing interests exists. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. CJB has served as Academic Editor for this journal and is still currently in that role. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE Editorial policies and criteria.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LL JB CJB. Performed the experiments: LL PC MZ. Analyzed the data: LL CJB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LL PC MZ JB CJB. Wrote the paper: LL JB CJB.