About the Authors

M. Rohan Fernando

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – original draft

mrohan.fernando@unmc.edu

Affiliations Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha NE, United States of America, Department of Research and Development, CFGenome Omaha NE, United States of America

Chao Jiang

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha NE, United States of America

Gary D. Krzyzanowski

Roles Formal analysis, Investigation

Affiliations Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha NE, United States of America, Department of Research and Development, CFGenome Omaha NE, United States of America

Tifany Somer-Shely

Roles Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources

Affiliation Methodist Physicians Clinic Women’s Center, Elkhorn, NE, United States of America

Wayne L. Ryan

† Deceased.

Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Supervision, Validation

Affiliation Department of Research and Development, CFGenome Omaha NE, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors of this manuscript, MRF, GDK and CJ are all full time employees of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Omaha NE USA. WLR is Professor Emeritus, University of Nebraska Medical Center, who has been associated with the department for more than 40 years. WLR passed away November 03, 2017. TS-S is a full time employee of Methodist Women’s Hospital, Omaha NE USA. CJ and TS-S has no conflicts of interest. MRF, GDK and WLR started CFGenome, a startup company based in Omaha NE USA. MRF and GDK are shareholders of CFGenome. MRF applied for patent for work described in this manuscript (Inventor: M Rohan Fernando Applicant: CFGenome LLC: A chemical composition to stabilize extracellular vesicles in a blood sample and methods of use thereof: WO 2017/214310 A1). This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and material.