About the Authors
- Karolina Anna Lis
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Roles Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Writing – original draft
Affiliation Institute of Food Quality and Food Safety, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Hannover, Germany
- Annika Boulaaba
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Roles Conceptualization, Project administration, Writing – review & editing
* E-mail: annika.boulaaba@tiho-hannover.de
Affiliation Institute of Food Quality and Food Safety, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Hannover, Germany
- Sylvia Binder
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Roles Methodology, Writing – review & editing
Affiliation Terraplasma GmbH, Garching, Germany
- Yangfang Li
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Roles Methodology, Resources, Writing – review & editing
Affiliation Terraplasma GmbH, Garching, Germany
- Corinna Kehrenberg
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Roles Supervision, Writing – review & editing
Affiliation Institute of Food Quality and Food Safety, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Hannover, Germany
- Julia Louise Zimmermann
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Roles Methodology, Resources, Writing – review & editing
Affiliation Terraplasma GmbH, Garching, Germany
- Günter Klein
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† Deceased.
Roles Funding acquisition, Methodology, Resources
Affiliation Institute of Food Quality and Food Safety, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Hannover, Germany
- Birte Ahlfeld
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Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing
Affiliation Institute of Food Quality and Food Safety, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Hannover, Germany
Competing Interests
Sylvia Binder, Yangfang Li and Julia L. Zimmermann are employed by terraplasma GmbH. The scientific cooperation with Drs Zimmermann and Li with TiHo-Hannover dates back to the time when they were both employed at the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics. Since their appointments at terraplasma GmbH (a spin-out start-up from the Max Planck Society) they have been given freedom to carry on with the basic research that was started earlier and is continuing. Their contribution to the current paper has been scientific – involving study design, analysis and interpretation and preparation of the manuscript. Ms Binder is a Bio-Engineer and helped in preparing the specialized plasma equipment used in the research and optimizing it for bactericidal and virucidal effects, without which the success of the study would not have been possible. The specialized plasma source was designed and manufactured at terraplasma and sold at cost price to TiHo-Hannover. terraplasma GmbH made no financial contribution other than continuing salary payments for (JZ, SyB and YFL). There are no further patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter our adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.