About the Authors

Marco Spinsanti

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation GSK, Siena, Italy

Tarcisio Brignoli

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Current address: School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom

Affiliations GSK, Siena, Italy, Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology (FaBiT), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Margherita Bodini

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation GSK, Siena, Italy

Lucia Eleonora Fontana

Roles Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation GSK, Siena, Italy

Matteo De Chiara

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

Current address: Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, INSERM, IRCAN, Nice, France

Affiliation GSK, Siena, Italy

Alessia Biolchi

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation GSK, Siena, Italy

Alessandro Muzzi

Roles Formal analysis, Investigation, Software, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation GSK, Siena, Italy

Vincenzo Scarlato

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology (FaBiT), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Isabel Delany

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

isabel.x.delany@gsk.com

Affiliation GSK, Siena, Italy

Competing Interests

I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: MS and MB were employees of Randstad Italia S.p.A, working as contractors for GSK at the time the study was conducted, and are now employees of the GSK group of companies. LF, AB, AM and ID are employees of the GSK group of companies; MDC was an employee of the GSK group of companies, now at Université Côte d’Azur. ID reports ownership of GSK stocks. ID is listed as inventor on patents on vaccine candidates owned by the GSK group of companies. At the time of the study MS and TB were recipients of a GSK fellowship from the PhD program of the University of Bologna. VS declares no conflicts of interest.