About the Authors

Anamika Basu

abasu@llu.edu

Affiliation Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California 92350, United States of America

Christina K. Cajigas-Du Ross

Affiliation Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California 92350, United States of America

Leslimar Rios-Colon

Affiliation Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California 92350, United States of America

Melanie Mediavilla-Varela

Current address: Department of Immunology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida 33612, United States of America

Affiliation Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California 92350, United States of America

Tracy R. Daniels-Wells

Current address: Department of Surgery, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States of America

Affiliation Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California 92350, United States of America

Lai Sum Leoh

Current address: Department of Surgery, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States of America

Affiliation Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California 92350, United States of America

Heather Rojas

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Human Anatomy, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California 92350, United States of America

Hiya Banerjee

Affiliation Novartis Pharmaceutical Oncology, East Hanover, New Jersey 08807, United States of America

Shannalee R. Martinez

Affiliation Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California 92350, United States of America

Stephanny Acevedo-Martinez

Current address: Department of Emergency Medicine, Hospital Dr. Federico Trilla, University of Puerto Rico, Carolina, Puerto Rico 00924

Affiliation Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California 92350, United States of America

Carlos A. Casiano

Affiliations Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California 92350, United States of America, Department of Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California 92350, United States of America

Competing Interests

One of the authors, HB, is employed by a commercial company—Novartis Pharmaceutical Oncology. Novartis provided support in the form of salary for HB, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This commercial affiliation does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AB CAC. Performed the experiments: AB CKCD LRC MMV TRDW LSL SRM SAM. Analyzed the data: AB HR HB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CAC. Wrote the paper: AB CKCD LRC CAC.