About the Authors

Paul R. West

pwest@stemina.com

Affiliation Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

David G. Amaral

Affiliation The M.I.N.D. Institute and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, California, United States of America

Preeti Bais

Affiliation The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, United States of America

Alan M. Smith

Affiliation Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

Laura A. Egnash

Affiliation Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

Mark E. Ross

Affiliation Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

Jessica A. Palmer

Affiliation Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

Burr R. Fontaine

Affiliation Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

Kevin R. Conard

Affiliation Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

Blythe A. Corbett

Affiliation Department of Psychiatry, Psychology and Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Gabriela G. Cezar

Current address: Pfizer Inc., São Paulo, Brazil

Affiliation Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

Elizabeth L. R. Donley

Affiliation Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

Robert E. Burrier

Affiliation Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America

Competing Interests

All authors except Blythe Corbett have, within the past five years, received salary from, and/or hold stocks or stock options in, Stemina Biomarker Discovery, which as a company may gain or lose financially from the publication of this manuscript. PRW, LAE, AMS, MER, JAP, BRF, KRC, GGC, ELRD and REB are employees of Stemina, whose company funded this study and holds, or is currently, applying for patents relating to the content of the manuscript as follows: BIOMARKERS OF AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER; PCT App No. PCT/US2014/045397 and METABOLIC BIOMARKERS OF AUTISM; PCT Application No. PCT/US2011/034654. There are no further patents, products in development, or marketed products to declare. 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: PRW DGA PB AS JAP GC ELRD REB. Performed the experiments: PRW LE MR KC. Analyzed the data: PRW LE AS KC BF PB. Wrote the paper: PRW DGA PB LE AS BF BAC JAP ELRD REB.