About the Authors

Manish Mahawar

Affiliation Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York, United States of America

Seham M. Rabadi

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York, United States of America

Sukalyani Banik

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York, United States of America

Sally V. Catlett

Affiliation Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Albany, New York, United States of America

Dennis W. Metzger

Affiliation Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York, United States of America

Meenakshi Malik

Affiliation Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Albany, New York, United States of America

Chandra Shekhar Bakshi

Shekhar_Bakshi@nymc.edu

Affiliations Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York, United States of America, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CSB DWM M. Malik . Performed the experiments: M. Mahawar SMR SB SC M. Malik CSB . Analyzed the data: M. Mahawar SMR SB M. Malik CSB . Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CSB DWM M. Malik . Wrote the paper: CSB M. Malik.