About the Authors

Britney L. Grayson

Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Mary Ellen Smith

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

James W. Thomas

Affiliations Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America, Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Lily Wang

Affiliation Department of Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Phil Dexheimer

Current address: Hudson Alpha Institute, Huntsville, Alabama, United States of America

Affiliation Functional Genomics Shared Resource, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Joy Jeffrey

Affiliation Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, University of Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America

Pamela R. Fain

Affiliation Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, University of Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America

Priyaanka Nanduri

Current address: Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America

Affiliation Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, University of Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America

George S. Eisenbarth

Affiliation Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, University of Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America

Thomas M. Aune

tom.aune@vanderbilt.edu

Affiliations Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America, Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Competing Interests

TMA is part owner of ArthroChip, LLC, whose focus is to develop diagnostic tests for autoimmune diseases using gene expression profiles in whole blood. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: BLG JWT GSE TMA. Performed the experiments: BLG MES LW PD. Analyzed the data: BLG MES LW PD JJ PRF PN GSE TMA. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LW PD JJ PRF PN GSE. Wrote the paper: BLG TMA. Edited manuscript: BLG MES LW PD PRF.