About the Authors

Shanmugalakshmi Sadagopal

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Miriam Braunstein

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America

Cynthia C. Hager

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Jie Wei

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Alexandria K. Daniel

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Markian R. Bochan

Current address: Infectious Disease of Indiana, PSC, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Ian Crozier

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Nathaniel E. Smith

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Hiriam O. Gates

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Louise Barnett

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Luc Van Kaer

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

James O. Price

Affiliation Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Timothy S. Blackwell

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Spyros A. Kalams

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Douglas S. Kernodle

doug.kernodle@vanderbilt.edu

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Competing Interests

MRB and DSK are named inventors on patents for modified BCG vaccines with reduced activity of anti-apoptotic microbial enzymes assigned to Vanderbilt University and the United States Government as represented by the Department of Veterans Affairs. MB is a named inventor on a patent application for SecA2 deletion filed by the University of North Carolina, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. None of the other authors have a financial interest related to this work.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SS MB CCH JW AKD MRB IC NES HOG LVK JOP TB SAK DSK. Performed the experiments: SS MB CCH JW AKD MRB IC NES HOG LB. Analyzed the data: SS JW NES LB LVK JOP SAK DSK. Wrote the paper: SS MB LVK SAK DSK.