About the Authors

Raphael Bueno

Affiliations The International Mesothelioma Program, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Assunta De Rienzo

Affiliations The International Mesothelioma Program, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Lingsheng Dong

Affiliations The International Mesothelioma Program, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Gavin J. Gordon

Affiliations The International Mesothelioma Program, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Colin F. Hercus

Affiliation Synamatix, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

William G. Richards

Affiliations The International Mesothelioma Program, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Roderick V. Jensen

Affiliation Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America

Arif Anwar

Affiliation Synamatix, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Gautam Maulik

Affiliations The International Mesothelioma Program, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Lucian R. Chirieac

Affiliations The International Mesothelioma Program, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Kim-Fong Ho

Affiliation Synamatix, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Bruce E. Taillon

Affiliation 454 Life Sciences, Inc., Branford, Connecticut, United States of America

Cynthia L. Turcotte

Affiliation 454 Life Sciences, Inc., Branford, Connecticut, United States of America

Robert G. Hercus

Affiliation Synamatix, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Steven R. Gullans

Affiliation Excel Medical Ventures, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

David J. Sugarbaker

dsugarbaker@partners.org

Affiliations The International Mesothelioma Program, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Competing Interests

There are authors on this manuscript that work for three companies: Roche 454 Life Sciences, Inc., Synamatix Sdn Bhd and Excel Medical Ventures and according to PLOS One rules must be called Funder. Each of these companies provided work for this project as a subcontractor and was paid for it. None of these companies owns any IP, has any control or exerted any influence on this article other than scientific editorializing. Specifically, the authors contracted 454 (and then Roche-454) to perform some of the sequencing since at the time there was no 454 machine in Boston. The authors met with their staff and they helped in the experimental design, but the sequencing was paid for by the authors' institution and the company holds no IP or any other controls. Synamatix was contracted to help the authors perform bioinformatic analysis using their equipment as the authors did not at the time have the full computer capability. They were used as a service company and do not control any IP or data. One of the authors' long term collaborators, Steve Gullans, moved from academia to the venture company he founded, Excel. He participated as a paid scientific collaborator and consultant in a manner unrelated to his company. Like the case for the others, his company places no restrictions nor owns any IP. Given that as described above, all these companies provided paid for, subcontracted resources, not unlike a Core function, the authors included some of their employees as authors for some scientific contributions. Furthermore, all the final data analysis, processing and validation was done in the authors' academic institution. However, there is no competing interest nor are there any data sharing limitations. Thus the authors continue to adhere to PLOS one rules and regulations in full.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RB DJS. Performed the experiments: ADR LD CH GM LC BET CT. Analyzed the data: RB ADR LD GG CH WGR RVJ AA RGH DJS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: ADR WGR RVJ. Wrote the paper: RB GG WGR RVJ AA DJS. Bioinformatic analysis: KFH. Experimental design and interpretation of data: SRG.