About the Authors

Andrea G. O. Manetti

Contributed equally to this work with: Andrea G. O. Manetti, Thomas Köller, Marco Becherelli

Affiliation Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Siena, Italy

Thomas Köller

Contributed equally to this work with: Andrea G. O. Manetti, Thomas Köller, Marco Becherelli

Affiliation Institute of Medical Microbiology, Virology and Hygiene, Rostock, Germany

Marco Becherelli

Contributed equally to this work with: Andrea G. O. Manetti, Thomas Köller, Marco Becherelli

Affiliation Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Siena, Italy

Scilla Buccato

Affiliation Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Siena, Italy

Bernd Kreikemeyer

Affiliation Institute of Medical Microbiology, Virology and Hygiene, Rostock, Germany

Andreas Podbielski

Affiliation Institute of Medical Microbiology, Virology and Hygiene, Rostock, Germany

Guido Grandi

Affiliation Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Siena, Italy

Immaculada Margarit

immaculada.margarit_y_ros@novartis.com

Affiliation Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Siena, Italy

Competing Interests

I.M., G.G., A.M., and S.B. are employed by the company that funded the work. G.G. and I.M. are holders of company stock options. These conflicts do not alter the authors' adherence to the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed in the authors' guide. All other authors report no potential conflicts.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AGOM TK MB SB BK AP GG IM. Performed the experiments: AGOM TK MB SB. Analyzed the data: AGOM TK MB SB BK AP GG IM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AGOM TK. Wrote the paper: AGOM IM.