About the Authors

Matthew North

Affiliation Department of Nutritional Science and Toxicology, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America

Vickram J. Tandon

Affiliation Department of Nutritional Science and Toxicology, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America

Reuben Thomas

Affiliation Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America

Alex Loguinov

Affiliation Department of Nutritional Science and Toxicology, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America

Inna Gerlovina

Affiliation Division of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America

Alan E. Hubbard

Affiliations Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America, Division of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America

Luoping Zhang

Affiliation Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America

Martyn T. Smith

Affiliation Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America

Chris D. Vulpe

vulpe@berkeley.edu

Affiliation Department of Nutritional Science and Toxicology, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

MTS has received consulting and expert testimony fees from law firms representing both plaintiffs and defendants in cases involving claims related to exposure to benzene. 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: MN LZ MTS CDV. Performed the experiments: MN VJT. Analyzed the data: MN RT AL IG. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AH LZ MTS CDV. Wrote the paper: MN RT IG AH LZ MTS CDV.