About the Authors

Zongchao Han

Affiliation Department of Cell Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States of America

Shannon M. Conley

Affiliation Department of Cell Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States of America

Rasha Makkia

Affiliation Department of Cell Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States of America

Junjing Guo

Affiliation Department of Cell Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States of America

Mark J. Cooper

Affiliation Copernicus Therapeutics, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Muna I. Naash

Muna-Naash@ouhsc.edu

Affiliation Department of Cell Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States of America

Competing Interests

MJC is an employee of Copernicus Therapeutics and owns stock and stock options in the company. There are issued and pending patents covering DNA nanoparticle compositions and their use as therapy for ocular disease. Nanoparticles are in development at Copernicus Therapeutics and there are no current marketed products. This information does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: ZH MIN. Performed the experiments: ZH SMC RM JG MIN. Analyzed the data: ZH SMC MIN. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MJC MIN. Wrote the paper: ZH SMC MJC MIN.