About the Authors

Harry S. Courtney

hcourtney@utmem.edu

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

Itzhak Ofek

Affiliations Department of Medicine, University of Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America, Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Thomas Penfound

Affiliation Department of Medicine, University of Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America

Victor Nizet

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America

Morgan A. Pence

Affiliation Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America

Bernd Kreikemeyer

Affiliation Department of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene, Hospital of Rostock University, Rostock, Germany

Andreas Podbielbski

Affiliation Department of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene, Hospital of Rostock University, Rostock, Germany

David L. Hasty

Affiliations Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, University of Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America

James B. Dale

Affiliations Department of Medicine, University of Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America, Department of Molecular Sciences, University of Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, University of Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HC IO TP. Performed the experiments: HC IO TP MAP. Analyzed the data: HC IO TP VN BK AP DLH JBD. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: HC VN MAP BK AP DLH JBD. Wrote the paper: HC IO TP VN BK AP DLH JBD.