About the Authors

Natalie Bordag

Affiliation Metanomics GmbH, Berlin, Germany

Vijay Janakiraman

Affiliation Biogen Idec Inc., Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, United States of America

Jonny Nachtigall

Affiliation Metanomics GmbH, Berlin, Germany

Sandra González Maldonado

Affiliation Metanomics GmbH, Berlin, Germany

Bianca Bethan

Affiliation Metanomics GmbH, Berlin, Germany

Jean-Philippe Laine

Affiliation Metanomics Health GmbH, Berlin, Germany

Elie Fux

elie.fux@metanomics.de

Affiliation Metanomics GmbH, Berlin, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have the following interests: Natalie Bordag, Jonny Nachtigall, Sandra González Maldonado, Bianca Bethan and Elie Fux are employed by metanomics GmbH. Vijay Janakiraman is employed by Biogen Idec Inc. Jean-Philippe Laine is employed by Metanomics Health GmbH. The companies metanomics GmbH and metanomics Health GmbH are commercial analytical service providers of metabolite profiling in industry and academia. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: VJ EF JL. Performed the experiments: VJ EF JN. Analyzed the data: SGM NB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: VJ JN EF SGM. Wrote the paper: NB VJ BB EF.