About the Authors

Ada Piepoli

a.piepoli@operapadrepio.it

Affiliation Department and Laboratory of Gastroenterology, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Francesca Tavano

Affiliation Department of Surgery, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Massimiliano Copetti

Affiliation Unit of Biostatistics, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Tommaso Mazza

Affiliation Unit of Bioinformatics, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Orazio Palumbo

Affiliation Medical Genetics Unit, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Anna Panza

Affiliation Department and Laboratory of Gastroenterology, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Francesco Fabio di Mola

Affiliation Department of Surgery, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Valerio Pazienza

Affiliation Department and Laboratory of Gastroenterology, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Gianluigi Mazzoccoli

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine and Chronobiology Unit, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Giuseppe Biscaglia

Affiliation Department and Laboratory of Gastroenterology, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Annamaria Gentile

Affiliation Department and Laboratory of Gastroenterology, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Nicola Mastrodonato

Affiliation Department of Surgery, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Massimo Carella

Affiliation Medical Genetics Unit, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Fabio Pellegrini

Affiliations Unit of Biostatistics, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, Unit of Bioinformatics, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, Medical Genetics Unit, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, Department of Internal Medicine and Chronobiology Unit, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, Unit of Biostatistics, DCPE Consorzio Mario Negri Sud, Santa Maria Imbaro, Italy

Pierluigi di Sebastiano

Contributed equally to this work with: Pierluigi di Sebastiano, Angelo Andriulli

Affiliation Department of Surgery, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Angelo Andriulli

Contributed equally to this work with: Pierluigi di Sebastiano, Angelo Andriulli

Affiliation Department and Laboratory of Gastroenterology, IRCCS “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”, Research Hospital, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: A. Piepoli. Performed the experiments: A. Panza OP M. Carella VP AG FT. Analyzed the data: M. Copetti TM FP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GB FFdM PdS NM. Wrote the paper: A. Piepoli GM AA.