About the Authors

Matthew Ryals

Roles Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft

Affiliation Department of Surgery/Otolaryngology, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, La Jolla, California, United States of America

Kwang Pak

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Visualization

Affiliation Department of Surgery/Otolaryngology, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, La Jolla, California, United States of America

Rahul Jalota

Roles Investigation, Visualization

Affiliation Department of Surgery/Otolaryngology, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, La Jolla, California, United States of America

Arwa Kurabi

Roles Investigation, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Surgery/Otolaryngology, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, La Jolla, California, United States of America

Allen F. Ryan

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

afryan@ucsd.edu

Affiliations Department of Surgery/Otolaryngology, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, La Jolla, California, United States of America, Research Service, Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Diego, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

Dr. Ryan is a co-founder of, shareholder in and consultant to Otonomy, Inc., which develops slow-release therapeutics for the treatment of ear disease. This relationship has been approved by the UCSD and San Diego VA Committees on Conflict of Interest. The company played no role in this research, and this relationship does not alter our adherence to PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.