About the Authors

Patrick C. Hermann

Affiliation Stem Cells and Cancer Group, Clinical Research Programme, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain

Sara M. Trabulo

Affiliation Stem Cells and Cancer Group, Clinical Research Programme, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain

Bruno Sainz Jr

Affiliation Stem Cells and Cancer Group, Clinical Research Programme, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain

Anamaria Balic

Affiliation Stem Cells and Cancer Group, Clinical Research Programme, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain

Elena Garcia

Affiliation Gastrointestinal Cancer Clinical Research Unit, Clinical Research Programme, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain

Stephan A. Hahn

Affiliation Department of Molecular GI-Oncology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

Mallaredy Vandana

Affiliation Nanomedicine Laboratory, Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, India

Sanjeeb K. Sahoo

Affiliation Nanomedicine Laboratory, Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, India

Patrizia Tunici

Affiliation Department of Oncology, Siena Biotech S.p.A., Siena, Italy

Annette Bakker

Affiliation Children’s Tumor Foundation, New York, New York, United States of America

Manuel Hidalgo

Affiliation Gastrointestinal Cancer Clinical Research Unit, Clinical Research Programme, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain

Christopher Heeschen

cheeschen@cnio.es

Affiliation Stem Cells and Cancer Group, Clinical Research Programme, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain

Competing Interests

Two of the authors are currently (Patrizia Tunici) or were until recently (Annette Bakker) employed by the commercial funder of this research 'Siena Biotech S.p.A'. Patrizia Tunici and Annette Bakker developed and validated SIBI-C1, but were not involved in the design and data analysis of the present study. The authors also confirm that this does not alter their adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. No other relevant declarations are made relating to employment, consultancy, patents, products in development or marketed products, etc.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: PCH SMT SKS CH. Performed the experiments: PCH SMT BS A. Balic. Analyzed the data: PCH SMT PT A. Balic CH BS EG. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SAH MH PT A. Bakker MV SKS. Wrote the paper: PCH BS CH.