About the Authors

Ashok A. Kumar

Contributed equally to this work with: Ashok A. Kumar, Catherine Chunda-Liyoka

Affiliation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Catherine Chunda-Liyoka

Contributed equally to this work with: Ashok A. Kumar, Catherine Chunda-Liyoka

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia

Jonathan W. Hennek

Affiliation Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Hamakwa Mantina

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia

S. Y. Ryan Lee

Affiliation Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Matthew R. Patton

Affiliation Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Pauline Sambo

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia

Silvester Sinyangwe

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia

Chipepo Kankasa

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia

Chifumbe Chintu

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia

Carlo Brugnara

Affiliation Department of Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Thomas P. Stossel

Affiliation Hematology Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

George M. Whitesides

gwhitesides@gmwgroup.harvard.edu

Affiliations Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors of this manuscript have read the journal's policy and have the following competing interests: A.A.K., G.M.W., and M.R.P. are inventors on two patent applications related to the use of AMPS to separate cells by density (U.S. Patent Application Nos. 13/817,985and 13/817,976). A.A.K., G.M.W., M.R.P., S.Y.R.L, J.W.H., C.B., and T.P.S. are inventors on a patent filed regarding the use of aqueous multiphase systems to diagnose sickle cell disease (U.S. Patent Application No. 61/816,227). This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AAK CCL JWH HM PS SS CK CC CB TPS GMW. Performed the experiments: AAK CCL JWH HM SYRL MRP. Analyzed the data: AAK CCL JWH HM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AAK JWH HM GMW. Wrote the paper: AAK CCL JWH HM SYRL MRP PS CK CC CB TPS GMW.

helloThese authors contributed equally to this work.