About the Authors

Shawn P. E. Nishi

spnishi@utmb.edu

Affiliation Division of Pulmonary Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Wei Zhang

Affiliation Division of Pulmonary Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Yong-Fang Kuo

Affiliation Sealy Center on Aging, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Gulshan Sharma

Affiliations Division of Pulmonary Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Galveston, Texas, United States of America, Sealy Center on Aging, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SPEN WZ YFK GS. Performed the experiments: SPEN WZ YFK GS. Analyzed the data: SPEN WZ YFK GS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SPEN WZ YFK GS. Wrote the paper: SPEN WZ YFK GS.