About the Authors

María Victoria Humbert

Contributed equally to this work with: María Victoria Humbert, Miao-Chiu Hung, Renee Phillips

Affiliation Neisseria Research, Molecular Microbiology, Academic Unit of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Sir Henry Wellcome Laboratories, University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, Southampton, United Kingdom

Miao-Chiu Hung

Contributed equally to this work with: María Victoria Humbert, Miao-Chiu Hung, Renee Phillips

Affiliation Neisseria Research, Molecular Microbiology, Academic Unit of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Sir Henry Wellcome Laboratories, University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, Southampton, United Kingdom

Renee Phillips

Contributed equally to this work with: María Victoria Humbert, Miao-Chiu Hung, Renee Phillips

Current address: Craniofacial Biology Research Group, School of Dentistry, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

Affiliation Neisseria Research, Molecular Microbiology, Academic Unit of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Sir Henry Wellcome Laboratories, University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, Southampton, United Kingdom

Charlene Akoto

Affiliation Neisseria Research, Molecular Microbiology, Academic Unit of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Sir Henry Wellcome Laboratories, University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, Southampton, United Kingdom

Alison Hill

Affiliation Neisseria Research, Molecular Microbiology, Academic Unit of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Sir Henry Wellcome Laboratories, University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, Southampton, United Kingdom

Wei-Ming Tan

Affiliation Neisseria Research, Molecular Microbiology, Academic Unit of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Sir Henry Wellcome Laboratories, University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, Southampton, United Kingdom

John Edward Heckels

Affiliation Neisseria Research, Molecular Microbiology, Academic Unit of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Sir Henry Wellcome Laboratories, University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, Southampton, United Kingdom

Myron Christodoulides

mc4@soton.ac.uk

Affiliation Neisseria Research, Molecular Microbiology, Academic Unit of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Sir Henry Wellcome Laboratories, University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, Southampton, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

Myron Christodoulides and John Heckels are named inventors on meningococcal vaccine patents owned by the University of Southampton (UK Patent Application No. 1211154.8 Nm-ACP Meningitis Vaccine for The University of Southampton; Patent Application No. 13741815.8 in Europe. Nm-ACP Meningitis Vaccine for University of Southampton; Patent Application No. 14/409 724 in USA, Nm-ACP Meningitis Vaccine for University of Southampton; International PCT Patent Application Number PCT/GB2011/051691, claiming priority from UK application 1014967.2 dated 09/09/2010, Nm-MIP as Meningitis Vaccine for the University of Southampton). This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MVH MCH RP JEH MC. Performed the experiments: MVH MCH RP CA AH WMT JEH MC. Analyzed the data: MVH MCH RP JEH MC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JEH MC. Wrote the paper: MVH MCH JEH MC.