About the Authors

Zaid Zoumot

Affiliations The NIHR Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College, London, United Kingdom, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom, Respiratory and Critical Care Institute, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Samuel V. Kemp

Affiliations The NIHR Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College, London, United Kingdom, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom, Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom

Suveer Singh

Affiliation Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom

Stephen R. Bicknell

Affiliation Gartnavel General Hospital, Glasgow, United Kingdom

William H. McNulty

Affiliations The NIHR Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College, London, United Kingdom, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom

Nicholas S. Hopkinson

Affiliation The NIHR Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College, London, United Kingdom

Ewen T. Ross

Affiliation Gartnavel General Hospital, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Pallav L. Shah

pallav.shah@ic.ac.uk

Affiliations The NIHR Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College, London, United Kingdom, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

PLS and SVK have received honoraria from PneumRx for lecturing at independent meetings. SVK and ZZ have received travel grants. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials and there are no restrictions on sharing of data and/or materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: PLS. Performed the experiments: ZZ SVK PLS NSH SS ER SB. Analyzed the data: ZZ. Wrote the paper: ZZ PLS. Contributed to subsequent drafts of the manuscript: ZZ SVK PLS NSH SS ER SB WM.