About the Authors

Jyotsna Shah

jyotsna@aol.com

Affiliation ID-FISH Technology Inc., Palo Alto, California, United States of America

Helena Weltman

Affiliation ID-FISH Technology Inc., Palo Alto, California, United States of America

Patricia Narciso

Affiliation ID-FISH Technology Inc., Palo Alto, California, United States of America

Christina Murphy

Affiliation ID-FISH Technology Inc., Palo Alto, California, United States of America

Akhila Poruri

Affiliation ID-FISH Technology Inc., Palo Alto, California, United States of America

Shrikala Baliga

Affiliation Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal University, India

Leesha Sharon

Affiliation Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal University, India

Mary York

Affiliation ID-FISH Technology Inc., Palo Alto, California, United States of America

Gail Cunningham

Affiliation University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America

Steve Miller

Affiliation University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America

Luz Caviedes

Affiliation Labotorio de Investigación en Enfermedades Infecciosas of the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Iquitos, Peru

Robert Gilman

Affiliations Labotorio de Investigación en Enfermedades Infecciosas of the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Iquitos, Peru, John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Edward Desmond

Affiliation Microbial Disease Laboratory, California Department of Public Health, Richmond, California, United States of America

Ranjan Ramasamy

Affiliation ID-FISH Technology Inc., Palo Alto, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

JS, HW are authors on patents listed below. JS has stocks in ID-FISH and IGeneX. PN, CM were employees of ID-FISH; RR is employee of ID-FISH; and AK is an employee of IGeneX and ID-FISH. They do not have any stock in these companies. This study was supported by NIH SBIR Phase I and Phase II Grants # A1056785. Following patents have been issued to ID-FISH. (1) METHOD FOR IMPROVING CELL PERMEABILITY TO FOREIGN PARTICLES. Inventors: Jyotsna S. Shah, Santa Clara, California (United States); Helena Weltman, Los Altos, California (United States); Patent Number: US 11/494,430. Issued Jan 21, 2014. (2) METHODS FOR DETECTING AND DIFFERENTIATING MYCOBACTERIUM GENUS AND MYCOBACTERIUM AVIUM COMPLEX IN A SAMPLE OR CULTURE, Inventors: Jyotsna S. Shah, Santa Clara, California (United States); Helena Weltman, Los Altos, California (United States); Patent Number US 11/975,306, Issued: June 24, 2014. The authors confirm that this does not alter their adherence to all PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in our guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: JS. Data curation: CM AK JS. Formal analysis: JS MY RR. Funding acquisition: JS SM RG. Investigation: JS HW PN CM LS LC. Methodology: JS MY HW PN CM LS GC LC AP ED. Project administration: JS SB. Resources: JS SM SB ED. Supervision: JS SB. Validation: JS MY RR. Visualization: JS HW PN CM LS LC AP. Writing – original draft: JS SB MY RR. Writing – review & editing: JS MY RR SM.