About the Authors

Johanna M. Walz

Affiliations Eye Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

Daniel Boehringer

Affiliation Eye Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

Heidrun L. Deissler

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany

Lothar Faerber

Affiliations Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany, Novartis Pharma AG, Nuremberg, Germany

Jens C. Goepfert

Affiliation NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tuebingen, Reutlingen, Germany

Peter Heiduschka

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany

Susannah M. Kleeberger

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Alexa Klettner

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, University of Kiel, University medical center, Kiel, Germany

Tim U. Krohne

Affiliation Department of Ophthalmology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Nicole Schneiderhan-Marra

Affiliation NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tuebingen, Reutlingen, Germany

Focke Ziemssen

Affiliation Department for Ophthalmology, Eberhard-Karl University Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany

Andreas Stahl

andreas.stahl@uniklinik-freiburg.de

Affiliation Eye Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

Competing Interests

This study was supported through a research grant from Novartis, Germany. J. M. Walz is a part time employee at Novartis; H. Deissler has received consultancy honoraria and research support from Novartis and travel grants from Bayer HealthCare and Novartis; L. Faerber is an employee at Novartis; P. Heiduschka has received research support from Novartis, Bayer HealthCare and Affiris; A. Klettner has received consultancy honoraria, speaker fees and research support from Novartis; T. U. Krohne has received consultancy honoraria and speaker fees from Bayer HealthCare, Heidelberg Engineering and Novartis, research grants from Alcon and Novartis and travel grants from Bayer HealthCare, Heidelberg Engineering and Novartis; F. Ziemssen has received consultancy honoraria from Alimera, Allergan, Bayer HealthCare and Novartis, speaker fees from Alcon, Alimera, Allergan, Bayer HealthCare, Heidelberg Engineering and Novartis and research support from Allergan and Novartis; A. Stahl has received research support from Novartis and speaker honoraria or consultancy honoraria from Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis and Zeiss; D. Boehringer, J. C. Goepfert, S. M. Kleeberger and N. Schneiderhan-Marra have no conflict of interest. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HD PH AK TK FZ AS. Performed the experiments: JW HD PH AK TK JCG SMK NS-M FZ AS. Analyzed the data: DB HD PH AK TK NS-M FZ AS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DB HD PH AK TK NS-M FZ AS. Wrote the paper: JW DB HD LF PH AK TK NS-M FZ AS.