About the Authors

Yogesh Bhootada

Affiliations Department of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Vision Science Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Pravallika Kotla

Affiliations Department of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Vision Science Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Sergei Zolotukhin

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Oleg Gorbatyuk

Affiliations Department of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Vision Science Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapy, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Zsuzsanna Bebok

Affiliations Department of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Mohammad Athar

Affiliations Department of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Department of Dermatology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Marina Gorbatyuk

mgortk@uab.edu

Affiliations Department of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Vision Science Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: YB MG. Performed the experiments: YB OG SZ MG PK. Analyzed the data: YB MG MA ZB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SZ MG. Wrote the paper: YB ZB MA MG.