About the Authors

Mingli Qi

Contributed equally to this work with: Mingli Qi, Janice A. Williams

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Janice A. Williams

Contributed equally to this work with: Mingli Qi, Janice A. Williams

Affiliation Departments of Surgery and Cell and Developmental Biology, Epithelial Biology Center, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Hin Chu

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Xuemin Chen

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Jaang-Jiun Wang

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Lingmei Ding

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Ehiole Akhirome

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Xiaoyun Wen

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Lynne A. Lapierre

Affiliation Departments of Surgery and Cell and Developmental Biology, Epithelial Biology Center, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

James R. Goldenring

jim.goldenring@vanderbilt.edu (JRG); paul.spearman@emory.edu (PS)

Affiliation Departments of Surgery and Cell and Developmental Biology, Epithelial Biology Center, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Paul Spearman

jim.goldenring@vanderbilt.edu (JRG); paul.spearman@emory.edu (PS)

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MQ JAW HC XW LAL JRG PS. Performed the experiments: MQ JAW HC XC JJW LD EA XW LAL. Analyzed the data: MQ JAW HC JJW LAL JRG PS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MQ JAW HC XC JJW LD XW LAL JRG PS. Wrote the paper: MQ JAW JRG PS.