About the Authors

Shi-Bin Cheng

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America

Paulette Ferland

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America

Paul Webster

Affiliation House Ear Institute, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Elaine L. Bearer

ebearer@salud.unm.edu

Affiliations Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America, Departments of Pathology and of Neurosurgery, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: ELB. Performed the experiments: ELB PF PW S-BC. Analyzed the data: S-BC PF ELB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: PW ELB. Wrote the paper: S-BC ELB. Developed the synchronization protocol: ELB PF. Performed immunogold EM: PW ELB. Performed confocal imaging: ELB PF S-BC.