About the Authors

Ashok Sharma

Contributed equally to this work with: Ashok Sharma, Shoshana M. Bartell

Affiliation Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, School of Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America

Shoshana M. Bartell

Contributed equally to this work with: Ashok Sharma, Shoshana M. Bartell

Affiliation Animal & Dairy Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America

Clifton A. Baile

Affiliation Animal & Dairy Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America

Bo Chen

Affiliation Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, School of Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America

Robert H. Podolsky

Affiliations Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, School of Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America

Richard A. McIndoe

Affiliations Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, School of Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America

Jin-Xiong She

jshe@mail.mcg.edu

Affiliations Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, School of Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SMB CAB JXS. Performed the experiments: SMB BC. Analyzed the data: AS RHP RAM JXS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CAB RAM JXS. Wrote the paper: AS JXS. Wrote algorithms for data processing and statistical analysis: AS RHP. Involved in useful critical discussion at all stages of the manuscript preparation as supervisor of AS: RAM.