About the Authors

Ian Mcgowan

imcgowan@pitt.edu

Affiliations University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Microbicide Trials Network, Magee-Womens Research Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Craig Hoesley

Affiliation University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Ross D. Cranston

Affiliation University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Philip Andrew

Affiliation FHI 360, Research Triangle Park, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America

Laura Janocko

Affiliation Microbicide Trials Network, Magee-Womens Research Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

James Y. Dai

Affiliations University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Statistical Center for HIV/AIDS Research and Prevention, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Alex Carballo-Dieguez

Affiliation Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America

Ratiya Kunjara Na Ayudhya

Affiliation Microbicide Trials Network, Magee-Womens Research Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Jeanna Piper

Affiliation Division of AIDS, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Florian Hladik

Affiliations University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Statistical Center for HIV/AIDS Research and Prevention, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Ken Mayer

Affiliation Fenway Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Competing Interests

CONRAD provided regulatory support for the tenofovir gel IND given their ongoing management of tenofovir gel development and held the IND for the tenofovir gel in this study. However, CONRAD did not provide financial support for the study. MTN paid for the tenofovir gel. Finally, there are no restrictions to data from MTN-007 which is controlled by CONRAD. 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: IM CH RDC PA LJ JYD AC-D JP FH KM. Performed the experiments: IM CH RDC PA KM LJ RKNA FH. Analyzed the data: JYD AC-D FH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AC-D FH. Wrote the paper: IM CH RDC LJ JYD AC-D JP FH KM.