About the Authors

Lauren Lapointe-Shaw

lauren.lapointe.shaw@mail.utoronto.ca

Affiliations Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Department of Medicine, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada

Kim L. Tran

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada

Peter C. Coyte

Affiliation Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Rebecca L. Hancock-Howard

Affiliation Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Jeff Powis

Affiliations Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Department of Medicine, Toronto East General Hospital, Toronto, Canada

Susan M. Poutanen

Affiliations Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Department of Medicine, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada, Department of Medicine and Medical Microbiology, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada

Susy Hota

Affiliations Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Department of Medicine, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada

Competing Interests

S. Hota and S. Poutanen are the principal investigator and study director, respectively, of a randomized controlled trial comparing fecal transplant + vancomycin to fecal transplant alone for the treatment of recurrent C. difficile infection (NCT01226992). Dr. Lauren Lapointe-Shaw is supported by the Clinician Scientist Training Program at the University of Toronto. Dr. Susy Hota has received clinic funding and advisory honoraria from Cubist Pharmaceuticals, the makers of fidaxomicin. Dr. Susan Poutanen has received advisory board and/or speaker honoraria from Optimer, Merck, Cubist, Sunovian, Hoffman-LaRoche, Paladin Labs, Pathogenica, and Accelerate Diagnostics. The remaining authors declare no competing interests. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. This project did not receive or utilize any specific project-related funding, from these organisations or others. Further, these organizations had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LLS KLT PCC RLHH JP SMP SH. Performed the experiments: LLS KLT. Analyzed the data: LLS KLT SH. Wrote the paper: LLS KLT PCC RLHH JP SMP SH.