About the Authors

Esther S. Pronker

e.s.pronker@gmail.com

Affiliations Vacceleron, Utrecht, The Netherlands, Faculty of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Tamar C. Weenen

Affiliation Faculty of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Harry Commandeur

Affiliation Faculty of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Eric H. J. H. M. Claassen

Affiliations Athena Instituut, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Viroscience, Erasmus Medical Centre Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Albertus D. M. E. Osterhaus

Affiliation Viroscience, Erasmus Medical Centre Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Competing Interests

Esther S. Pronker is completing her PhD program using funds from the Dutch NGI Valorisation award from 2009. A.D.M.E. Osterhaus wishes to declare, for the avoidance of any misunderstanding on competing interests, that he co-founded and is chief scientific officer of Viroclinics Biosciences BV a spin out of Erasmus MC. However, for clarification, no materials or support were received from the company, and no agreements were in place concerning the execution or publication of this work. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. 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: ESP TCW HC EHJHMC ADMEO. Performed the experiments: ESP TCW HC EHJHMC ADMEO. Analyzed the data: ESP TCW HC EHJHMC ADMEO. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: ESP TCW HC EHJHMC ADMEO. Wrote the paper: ESP TCW HC EHJHMC ADMEO.