About the Authors

Jianping Li

Contributed equally to this work with: Jianping Li, Zeinab H. Helal

Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Current address: Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Affiliation Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America

Zeinab H. Helal

Contributed equally to this work with: Jianping Li, Zeinab H. Helal

Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

Christopher P. Karch

Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation The Institute of Material Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America

Neha Mishra

Roles Visualization

Affiliation Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America

Theodore Girshick

Roles Formal analysis, Supervision

Affiliation Charles River Laboratories, Avian vaccine services, North Franklin, CT, United States of America

Antonio Garmendia

Roles Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America

Peter Burkhard

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations The Institute of Material Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America, Department of Molecular Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America, Alpha-O-Peptides AG, Riehen, Switzerland

Mazhar I. Khan

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

mazhar.khan@uconn.edu

Affiliation Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: PB has an interest in the company Alpha-O Peptides that has patents or patents pending (EP 04711429.3, P. Burkhard; EP 09717471.8, P. Burkhard; EP14150600.6, S.K. Raman, et al.) on the technology. The Charles River Laboratories Avian Vaccine Services, provided support in the form of salaries for authors (T.G). This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The other authors declare no competing interests.