About the Authors

Ruben Hummelen

Contributed equally to this work with: Ruben Hummelen, Jean M. Macklaim, Jordan E. Bisanz

Affiliations Canadian Research & Development Centre for Probiotics, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Canada, Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Jean M. Macklaim

Contributed equally to this work with: Ruben Hummelen, Jean M. Macklaim, Jordan E. Bisanz

Affiliations Canadian Research & Development Centre for Probiotics, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Canada, Biochemistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

Jordan E. Bisanz

Contributed equally to this work with: Ruben Hummelen, Jean M. Macklaim, Jordan E. Bisanz

Affiliations Canadian Research & Development Centre for Probiotics, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Canada, Microbiology and Immunology, and Surgery, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

Jo-Anne Hammond

Affiliations Canadian Research & Development Centre for Probiotics, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Canada, Family Medicine, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

Amy McMillan

Affiliations Canadian Research & Development Centre for Probiotics, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Canada, Microbiology and Immunology, and Surgery, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

Rebecca Vongsa

Affiliation Kimberly Clark Corporation, Corporate Research and Engineering-Microbial Control, Neenah, Wisconsin, United States of America

David Koenig

Affiliation Kimberly Clark Corporation, Corporate Research and Engineering-Microbial Control, Neenah, Wisconsin, United States of America

Gregory B. Gloor

This author also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliations Canadian Research & Development Centre for Probiotics, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Canada, Biochemistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

Gregor Reid

gregor@uwo.ca

Affiliations Canadian Research & Development Centre for Probiotics, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Canada, Microbiology and Immunology, and Surgery, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist, with the exception of BV and DK. All authors have read the journal′s policy and have the following conflicts. BV and DK are scientists employed by Kimberly Clark, the company that provided a grant-in-aid for the study. They support the objective and complete presentation of all the results obtained in the study, plus the peer review, editorial decision making, and publication of the research. The stated competing interest did not alter the authors′ adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GR J-AH BV DK. Performed the experiments: RH JMM JEB J-AH AM GBG GR. Analyzed the data: RH JMM JEB AM GBG GR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: J-AH BV DK GBG GR. Wrote the paper: RH JMM JEB J-AH AM GBG GR BV DK. Equal first authorship contributions: RH JMM JEB.