About the Authors

Alain J. D’Souza

Affiliations Department of Genetics, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America, Section of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine – Department of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America

Shyamal D. Desai

jshell@lsuhsc.edu (JES); sdesai@lsuhsc.edu (SDS)

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America

Xiaowen L. Rudner

Affiliation Section of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine – Department of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America

Michelle N. Kelly

Affiliation Section of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine – Department of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America

SanBao Ruan

Affiliation Section of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine – Department of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America

Judd E. Shellito

jshell@lsuhsc.edu (JES); sdesai@lsuhsc.edu (SDS)

Affiliation Section of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine – Department of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Edited the final version of the manuscript: AJD JES SDD. Conceived and designed the experiments: AJD JES SDD MNK XLR. Performed the experiments: AJD. Analyzed the data: AJD JES SDD MNK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SDD SR. Wrote the paper: AJD.