About the Authors

Gilbert Greub

Contributed equally to this work with: Gilbert Greub, Carole Kebbi-Beghdadi, Claire Bertelli

gilbert.greub@chuv.ch

Affiliation Center for Research on Intracellular Bacteria (CRIB), Institute of Microbiology, University Hospital Center, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Carole Kebbi-Beghdadi

Contributed equally to this work with: Gilbert Greub, Carole Kebbi-Beghdadi, Claire Bertelli

Affiliation Center for Research on Intracellular Bacteria (CRIB), Institute of Microbiology, University Hospital Center, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Claire Bertelli

Contributed equally to this work with: Gilbert Greub, Carole Kebbi-Beghdadi, Claire Bertelli

Affiliation Center for Research on Intracellular Bacteria (CRIB), Institute of Microbiology, University Hospital Center, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

François Collyn

Affiliation Center for Research on Intracellular Bacteria (CRIB), Institute of Microbiology, University Hospital Center, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Beat M. Riederer

Affiliations Department of Cellular Biology and Morphology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, Proteomics Unit, Department of Psychiatric Neurosciences, Cery, Prilly-Lausanne, Switzerland

Camille Yersin

Affiliation Center for Research on Intracellular Bacteria (CRIB), Institute of Microbiology, University Hospital Center, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Antony Croxatto

Affiliation Center for Research on Intracellular Bacteria (CRIB), Institute of Microbiology, University Hospital Center, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Didier Raoult

Affiliation Unité des Rickettsies, Faculté de Médecine, Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France

Competing Interests

The antigenic proteins and corresponding polypeptides identified as immunogenic thanks to this work have been patented for the detection of antibodies directed against Parachlamydia acanthamoebae as well as for their use in related diagnostic tests (i.e. immunohistochemistry) and vaccines (European patent n° 08172133.4-1223, 12th December 2008). This patent does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, and the authors of the present work will make freely available any materials and information associated with their publication that are reasonably requested by others for the purpose of academic, non-commercial research.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GG BMR DR. Performed the experiments: CKB CB FC CY AC. Analyzed the data: GG CKB CB FC BMR CY AC DR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GG BMR DR. Wrote the paper: GG CKB CB. Improved the manuscript and approved the final version: FC BMR CY AC DR.