About the Authors

Iana H. Haralambieva

Affiliations Vaccine Research Group, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America, Program in Translational Immunovirology and Biodefense, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America

Ann L. Oberg

Affiliation Department of Health Sciences Research, Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America

Inna G. Ovsyannikova

Affiliations Vaccine Research Group, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America, Program in Translational Immunovirology and Biodefense, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America

Richard B. Kennedy

Affiliations Vaccine Research Group, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America, Program in Translational Immunovirology and Biodefense, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America

Diane E. Grill

Affiliation Department of Health Sciences Research, Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America

Sumit Middha

Affiliation Department of Health Sciences Research, Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America

Brian M. Bot

Affiliation Sage Bionetworks, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Vivian W. Wang

Affiliation Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America

David I. Smith

Affiliation Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America

Robert M. Jacobson

Affiliations Vaccine Research Group, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America, Program in Translational Immunovirology and Biodefense, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America, Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America

Gregory A. Poland

poland.gregory@mayo.edu

Affiliations Vaccine Research Group, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America, Program in Translational Immunovirology and Biodefense, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America, Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America

Competing Interests

Dr. GAP is the chair of a Safety Evaluation Committee for investigational vaccine trials being conducted by Merck Research Laboratories. Dr. GAP offers consultative advice on vaccine development to Merck & Co. Inc., CSL Biotherapies, Avianax, Sanofi Pasteur, Dynavax, Novartis Vaccines and Therapeutics, and PAXVAX Inc. Dr. RMJ is a member of a Data Monitoring Committee for two Merck vaccine studies as well as a Safety Review Committee for another Merck vaccine study. He also recently served as a principal investigator for three vaccine studies including one by Novartis and two by Pfizer. BMB is employed by Sage Bionetworks, which is a commercial company. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: IHH ALO IGO RBK DEG DIS RMJ GAP. Performed the experiments: IHH IGO RBK. Analyzed the data: IHH ALO RBK DEG SM BMB VWW DIS GAP. Wrote the paper: IHH ALO IGO RBK DEG SM BMB VWW DIS RMJ GAP.