About the Authors

Yi Liu

Affiliation Department of Physiology, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America

Dianna Howard

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America

Kyle Rector

Affiliation Department of Physiology, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America

Carol Swiderski

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America

Jason Brandon

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America

Lawrence Schook

Affiliation Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America

Jayesh Mehta

Affiliation Department of Medicine, The Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

J. Scott Bryson

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America

Subbarao Bondada

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America

Ying Liang

ying.liang@uky.edu

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: Y. Liang. Performed the experiments: Y. Liu KR CS Y. Liang. Analyzed the data: Y. Liu Y. Liang. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JB LS JM JSB SB DH. Wrote the paper: Y. Liang.