About the Authors

Ruth Dobson

ruth.dobson@qmul.ac.uk

Affiliation Queen Mary University London; Blizard Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, United Kingdom

Sreeram Ramagopalan

Affiliation Queen Mary University London; Blizard Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, United Kingdom

Joanne Topping

Affiliation Queen Mary University London; Blizard Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, United Kingdom

Paul Smith

Affiliation Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom

Bhavana Solanky

Affiliation NMR Research Unit, Queen Square Multiple Sclerosis Centre, University College London (UCL) Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom

Klaus Schmierer

Affiliations Queen Mary University London; Blizard Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, United Kingdom, Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom

Declan Chard

Affiliations NMR Research Unit, Queen Square Multiple Sclerosis Centre, University College London (UCL) Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) University College London Hospitals (UCLH) Biomedical Research Centre, London, United Kingdom

Gavin Giovannoni

Affiliations Queen Mary University London; Blizard Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, United Kingdom, Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

RD, SR, JT, and BS have no conflicts of interest to declare. KS is PI of trials sponsored by Novartis & Roche. He is involved in trials sponsored by Biogen, Genzyme, Teva, Merck Inc. and BIAL. Speaking honoraria from, and/or in an advisory role for, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Merck-Serono and Merck Inc. DC has received research support from the MS Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre. He has received honoraria (paid to his employer) from Ismar Healthcare NV, Swiss MS Society, Excemed (previously Serono Symposia International Foundation), Merck, Bayer and Teva for faculty-led education work; Teva for advisory board work; meeting expenses from Merck, Teva, Novartis, the MS Trust and National MS Society; and has previously held stock in GlaxoSmithKline. He is a member of the MS Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland's Biomedical Grant Review Panel. He is a member of the Data Safety Monitoring Committee for the PROXIMUS study, which is funded by National Multiple Sclerosis Society and Novartis. Both of these roles are unpaid. GG has received research grant support from Bayer-Schering Healthcare, Biogen-Idec, GW Pharma, Merck Serono, Merz, Novartis, Teva and Sanofi-Aventis. He has received personal compensation for participating on Advisory Boards in relation to clinical trial design, trial steering committees and data and safety monitoring committees from: Bayer-Schering Healthcare, Biogen-Idec, Eisai, Elan, Fiveprime, Genzyme, Genentech, GSK, GW Pharma, Ironwood, Merck-Serono, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, Synthon BV, Teva, UCB Pharma and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: RD GG. Formal analysis: RD SR PS KS DC GG. Funding acquisition: RD. Investigation: RD SR JT. Methodology: RD SR GG. Project administration: RD JT. Resources: RD SR JT BS DC. Supervision: RD GG. Validation: PS KS DC. Visualization: RD SR JT PS BS KS DC GG. Writing – original draft: RD. Writing – review & editing: RD SR JT PS BS KS DC GG.