About the Authors

Chan Beals

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

chanbeals@gmail.com

Current address: Abide Therapeutics, San Diego, California, United States of America

Affiliation Department of Clinical Research, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey, United States of America

Richard Baumgartner

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Clinical Research, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey, United States of America

Charles Peterfy

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Spire Sciences, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida, United States of America

Andra Balanescu

Roles Investigation, Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Immunology, U of Med and Pharm Carol Davila, Bucharest, Romania

Gavrila Mirea

Roles Investigation, Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Rheumatology, Tractorul County Hospital, Brasov, Romania

Alexandru Harabagiu

Roles Investigation, Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation German Diagnostic Center, Chisinau, MD, Moldova

Serghei Popa

Roles Investigation, Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Rheumatology, Republican Clinical Hospital, Chisinau, MD, Moldova

Amy Cheng

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Clinical Research, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey, United States of America

Dai Feng

Roles Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Clinical Research, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey, United States of America

Edward Ashton

Roles Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation VirtualScopics, Rochester, New York, United States of America

Julie DiCarlo

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Spire Sciences, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida, United States of America

Marie-Helene Vallee

Roles Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Clinical Research, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey, United States of America

Bernard J. Dardzinski

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Current address: The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Affiliation Department of Clinical Research, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey, United States of America

Competing Interests

C. Beals, R. Baumgartner, A. Cheng, D. Feng, M.-H. Vallee, and B. Dardzinski are currently (or were at the time the study was conducted) employees of Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, who may own stock and/or hold stock options in Merck. C. Peterfy and J. DiCarlo are employees of Spire Sciences, Inc., employed by the study sponsor Merck to analyze study results; E. Ashton is an employee of VirtualScopics, employed by Merck to analyze study results; A. Balanescu, G. Mirea, A. Harabagiu, and S. Popa claim no conflicts of interest. There are no additional declarations from the authors relevant to this research relating to employment, consultancy, products in development, patents, or revenues from marketed products to declare. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, with the following exception: To protect the privacy and confidentiality of research participants, there are restrictions on the availability of data from this study (see Merck’s data sharing policy at http://engagezone.msd.com/ds_documentation.php). Requests for data access can be submitted to: dataaccess@merck.com.