About the Authors

Kazem Zibara

Affiliation Department of Biology, Doctoral School of Science and Technology (DSST), Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon

Rima Hamdan

Affiliation Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

Leila Dib

Affiliation Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

Steen Sindet-Pedersen

Affiliation Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Nicolas & Asp University College, Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Mohamed Kharfan-Dabaja

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

Ali Bazarbachi

me00@aub.edu.lb (ME-S); bazarbac@aub.edu.lb (AB)

Affiliations Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, Department of Internal Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

Marwan El-Sabban

me00@aub.edu.lb (ME-S); bazarbac@aub.edu.lb (AB)

Affiliation Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

Competing Interests

The authors declare the funding source “Biotek APS, Denamrk.” The authors have no competing interests whatsoever (employment, consultancy, patents, products in development or marketed products, etc.) with the commercial funding source. 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: KZ SSP AB MES. Performed the experiments: KZ RH LD. Analyzed the data: KZ RH AB MES. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AB MES. Wrote the paper: KZ MKD AB MES.