About the Authors

Aditi Bauskar

Affiliation USC Institute for Genetic Medicine and Graduate Program in Medical Biology, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Wendy J. Mack

Affiliation Southern California Clinical & Translational Science Institute and Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Jerome Mauris

Affiliation The Schepens Eye Research Institute, Massachusetts Eye & Ear and Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Pablo Argüeso

Affiliation The Schepens Eye Research Institute, Massachusetts Eye & Ear and Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Martin Heur

Affiliation USC Eye Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Barbara A. Nagel

Affiliation Research Microscopy and Histology Core, Department of Pathology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Grant R. Kolar

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Department of Ophthalmology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

Martin E. Gleave

Affiliation The Vancouver Prostate Centre and Department of Urologic Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Takahiro Nakamura

Affiliation Department of Frontier Medical Science and Technology for Ophthalmology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan

Shigeru Kinoshita

Affiliation Department of Frontier Medical Science and Technology for Ophthalmology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan

Janet Moradian-Oldak

Affiliation Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology, Division of Biomedical Sciences, University of Southern California, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Noorjahan Panjwani

Affiliation New England Eye Center/Department of Ophthalmology and Department of Developmental, Molecular & Chemical Biology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Stephen C. Pflugfelder

Affiliation Ocular Surface Center, Department of Ophthalmology, Cullen Eye Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Mark R. Wilson

Affiliation Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, School of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

M. Elizabeth Fini

Affiliation USC Institute for Genetic Medicine and Departments of Cell & Neurobiology and Ophthalmology, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Shinwu Jeong

shinwuje@usc.edu

Affiliation USC Institute for Genetic Medicine and Department of Ophthalmology, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

A U.S. patent application entitled “Structure/Function of Clusterin Pharmaceuticals” (inventors: MEF and SJ) and a U.S. provision patent application entitled “Diagnostic Test to Improve Efficacy of Biotherapeutics for Dry Eye Based on Clusterin” (inventors: MEF, SJ and AB) have been filed by the University of Southern California in connection with this work. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AB MEF SJ. Performed the experiments: AB JM PA MH BAN GRK SJ. Analyzed the data: AB WJM JM PA MH BAN GRK MEF SJ. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MEG JM-O. Wrote the paper: AB WJM JM PA MH BAN GRK MEG TN SK JM-O NP SCP MRW MEF SJ. Provided consultation in specific areas of their expertise: MEG TN SK JM-O PA NP SCP MRW.