About the Authors

Ahmed R. El-Awady

Affiliation Department of Periodontics, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America

Brodie Miles

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University of Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America

Elizabeth Scisci

Affiliation School of Dental Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America

Zoya B. Kurago

Affiliation Department of Oral Health and Diagnostic Sciences, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America

Chithra D. Palani

Affiliation Department of Oral Health and Diagnostic Sciences, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America

Roger M. Arce

Affiliation Department of Periodontics, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America

Jennifer L. Waller

Affiliation Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America

Caroline A. Genco

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Department of Microbiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Connie Slocum

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Matthew Manning

Affiliation Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America

Patricia V. Schoenlein

Affiliation Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America

Christopher W. Cutler

chcutler@gru.edu

Affiliation Department of Periodontics, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AREA PVS CWC. Performed the experiments: AREA BM ES CDP MM PVS CWC. Analyzed the data: AREA ZBK RMA JLW CWC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AREA ZBK JLW PVS CWC. Wrote the paper: AREA CAG CS CWC.