About the Authors

Hao Chen

Contributed equally to this work with: Hao Chen, Jianying Li

Affiliation Cancer Research Program, JLC-BBRI, North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America

Jianying Li

Contributed equally to this work with: Hao Chen, Jianying Li

Affiliation Frontier Bioinformatics Solution, LLC, Cary, North Carolina, United States of America

Haiyan Li

Affiliation Center for Musculoskeletal Research, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, United States of America

Yuhui Hu

Affiliation Cancer Research Program, JLC-BBRI, North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America

Whitney Tevebaugh

Affiliation Cancer Research Program, JLC-BBRI, North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America

Masayuki Yamamoto

Affiliation Department of Medical Biochemistry, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan

Jianwen Que

jianwen_que@urmc.rochester.edu (JQ); lchen@nccu.edu (XC)

Affiliation Department of Biomedical Genetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, United States of America

Xiaoxin Chen

jianwen_que@urmc.rochester.edu (JQ); lchen@nccu.edu (XC)

Affiliations Cancer Research Program, JLC-BBRI, North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Center of Esophageal Disease and Swallowing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: The co-author Jianying Li is employed by a commercial company (Frontieer Bioinformatics Solution, LLC, Cary, NC). 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: XC JQ. Performed the experiments: HC HL YH WT. Analyzed the data: JL HC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MY. Wrote the paper: HC JL JQ XC.