About the Authors

Hiroki Takeshita

Affiliations Division of Digestive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan, Latner Thoracic Surgery Research Laboratories, University Health Network Toronto General Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Atsushi Shiozaki

Affiliation Division of Digestive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan

Xiao-Hui Bai

Affiliation Latner Thoracic Surgery Research Laboratories, University Health Network Toronto General Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Daisuke Iitaka

Affiliations Division of Digestive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan, Latner Thoracic Surgery Research Laboratories, University Health Network Toronto General Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Hyunhee Kim

Affiliation Latner Thoracic Surgery Research Laboratories, University Health Network Toronto General Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Burton B. Yang

Affiliations Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Department of Surgery and Institute of Medical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Shaf Keshavjee

Affiliations Latner Thoracic Surgery Research Laboratories, University Health Network Toronto General Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Department of Surgery and Institute of Medical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Mingyao Liu

mingyao.liu@utoronto.ca

Affiliations Latner Thoracic Surgery Research Laboratories, University Health Network Toronto General Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Department of Surgery and Institute of Medical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HT AS BBY ML. Performed the experiments: HT XHB DI HK. Analyzed the data: HT BBY ML. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: HT AS XHB SK. Wrote the paper: HT AS BBY ML.