About the Authors

Ted M. Ross

tmr15@pitt.edu

Affiliations Center for Vaccine Research, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Kutub Mahmood

Current address: Adamas Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Emeryville, California, United States of America

Affiliation Novavax, Inc., Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Corey J. Crevar

Affiliation Center for Vaccine Research, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Kirsten Schneider-Ohrum

Affiliations Center for Vaccine Research, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Penny M. Heaton

Affiliation Novavax, Inc., Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Rick A. Bright

Current address: PATH, Washington, D. C., United States of America

Affiliation Novavax, Inc., Rockville, Maryland, United States of America

Competing Interests

The three members of Novavax (two of which, KM, RB, no longer work at Novavax) have the following conflicts of interest. Kutub Mahmood, Penny Heaton and Rick Bright own stock in Novavax, were paid or currently being paid by Novavax, and are listed as participants on patents (pending patents). None of them are board memberships, have research grants, have travel grants, have relevant personal relationships or are involvement with lobbying. Corey Crevar, Kirsten Schneider-Ohrum and Ted M. Ross are members of the University of Pittsburgh, Center for Vaccine Research. Novavax provide funds for this project to TMR as the Prinicipal Investigator to conduct this work. His relationship with Novavax was strictly limited to conducting the research and collaborating with Novavax on the project. They did not allow Novavax to direct the project and Novavax was blinded until the study was completed.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: TMR KM CJC KSO RAB. Performed the experiments: CJC KSO. Analyzed the data: TMR CJC KSO PH RAB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KM PH. Wrote the paper: TMR RAB.