About the Authors

Lukas Martin

Affiliation Department of Intensive Care and Intermediate Care, University Hospital RWTH, Aachen, Germany

Rebecca De Santis

Affiliation Department of Intensive Care and Intermediate Care, University Hospital RWTH, Aachen, Germany

Patrick Koczera

Affiliation Department of Intensive Care and Intermediate Care, University Hospital RWTH, Aachen, Germany

Nadine Simons

Affiliation Department of Intensive Care and Intermediate Care, University Hospital RWTH, Aachen, Germany

Hajo Haase

Affiliation Department of Food Chemistry and Toxicology, Berlin Institute of Technology, Berlin, Germany

Lena Heinbockel

Affiliation Division of Biophysics, Forschungszentrum Borstel, Borstel, Germany

Klaus Brandenburg

Affiliation Division of Biophysics, Forschungszentrum Borstel, Borstel, Germany

Gernot Marx

Affiliation Department of Intensive Care and Intermediate Care, University Hospital RWTH, Aachen, Germany

Tobias Schuerholz

tschuerholz@ukaachen.de

Affiliation Department of Intensive Care and Intermediate Care, University Hospital RWTH, Aachen, Germany

Competing Interests

KB has a patent for the structure of the synthetic antimicrobial peptide 19-2.5 (Aspidasept, Brandenburg Antiinfektiva, Borstel, Germany): Patent-No: PCT/EP2009/002565, and is chief scientific officer of Brandenburg Antiinfektiva GmbH. TS received travel grants and lecture fees from Astellas Pharma, and lecture fees from Bayer Vital, Astra-Zeneca and B. Braun Melsungen, and is chief medical officer of Brandenburg Antiinfektiva GmbH. GM has received honoraria for consulting or lecturing and restricted research grants from the following companies: BBraun, Edwards Life Sciences, Serumwerke Bernburg, Hutchinson Technology, and Baxter. The competing interests do not alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LM TS KB LH NS RDS. Performed the experiments: LM RDS NS LH. Analyzed the data: LM GM TS PK KB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KB HH LH. Wrote the paper: LM TS PK HH KB GM.