About the Authors

Ethan J. Bassin

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft

Affiliation Department of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Abigail R. Buckley

Roles Investigation

Affiliation Division of Pediatric Surgery, Department of Surgery, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Jon D. Piganelli

Roles Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

srlittle@pitt.edu (SRL); jdp51@pitt.edu (JDP)

Affiliations Department of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Division of Pediatric Surgery, Department of Surgery, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Steven R. Little

Roles Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

srlittle@pitt.edu (SRL); jdp51@pitt.edu (JDP)

Affiliations Department of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Pharmaceutical Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors declare the following competing interests: S.R.L. is an inventor on patent 14/372,977 entitled “Controlled Release Formulations for the Induction and Proliferation of Blood Cells” which was issued to the University of Pittsburgh on 04/30/20. This patent covers the TRI MP formulation used in this manuscript. All other authors declare they have no competing interests. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.