About the Authors

Karsten Thelen

Affiliation Department of Developmental Neurobiology, Centre for Organismal Studies, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Steffen Jaehrling

Affiliation Department of Developmental Neurobiology, Centre for Organismal Studies, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Joachim P. Spatz

Affiliations Department of New Materials and Biosystems, Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, Germany, Department of Biophysical Chemistry, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

G. Elisabeth Pollerberg

G.E.Pollerberg@cos.uni-heidelberg.de

Affiliation Department of Developmental Neurobiology, Centre for Organismal Studies, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Competing Interests

GEP is author on a related EU patent application (EP 11 009 566.8). This is registered at the European Patent Office, Postbus 5818, 2280HV RIJSWIJK, Netherlands Application No 11009566.8 1219. 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: KT SJ JPS GEP. Performed the experiments: KT SJ. Analyzed the data: KT SJ GEP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JPS. Wrote the paper: KT GEP.