About the Authors

Jules A. Nchoutmboube

Contributed equally to this work with: Jules A. Nchoutmboube, Ekaterina G. Viktorova

Affiliation Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America

Ekaterina G. Viktorova

Contributed equally to this work with: Jules A. Nchoutmboube, Ekaterina G. Viktorova

Affiliation Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America

Alison J. Scott

Affiliation University of Maryland, School of Dentistry, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Lauren A. Ford

Affiliation Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America

Zhengtong Pei

Current address: Department of Pathology, Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, New Jersey, United States of America.

Affiliation Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Paul A. Watkins

Affiliation Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Robert K. Ernst

Affiliation University of Maryland, School of Dentistry, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

George A. Belov

gbelov@umd.edu

Affiliation Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GAB PAW RKE AJS. Performed the experiments: JAN EGV AJS LAF ZP GAB. Analyzed the data: GAB PAW AJS RKE. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GAB RKE PAW. Wrote the paper: GAB.