About the Authors

Carissa M. Thomas

Affiliation Interdepartmental Program in Cell and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Teresa Hong

Affiliation Department of Immunology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, California, United States of America

Jan Peter van Pijkeren

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America

Peera Hemarajata

Affiliation Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Dan V. Trinh

Affiliation Department of Immunology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, California, United States of America

Weidong Hu

Affiliation Department of Immunology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, California, United States of America

Robert A. Britton

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America

Markus Kalkum

Affiliation Department of Immunology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, California, United States of America

James Versalovic

jamesv@bcm.edu

Affiliations Department of Pathology and Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Department of Pathology, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Competing Interests

James Versalovic receives unrestricted research support from BioGaia AB. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CMT PH WH RAB MK JV. Performed the experiments: CMT TH JPVP PH DVT WH. Analyzed the data: CMT JPVP PH WH MK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JPVP WH RAB MK JV. Wrote the paper: CMT JPVP PH WH MK JV. Served as Principal Investigator of the study: JV. Supervised the experimental studies: JV.