About the Authors

Marloes J. M. Gooden

Contributed equally to this work with: Marloes J. M. Gooden, Valerie R. Wiersma

Affiliations Department of Surgery, Translational Surgical Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Valerie R. Wiersma

Contributed equally to this work with: Marloes J. M. Gooden, Valerie R. Wiersma

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Translational Surgical Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Douwe F. Samplonius

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Translational Surgical Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Jurjen Gerssen

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Translational Surgical Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Robert J. van Ginkel

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Translational Surgical Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Hans W. Nijman

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Mitsuomi Hirashima

Affiliations GalPharma Co., Ltd., Kagawa, Japan, Department of Immunology and Immunopathology, Kagawa University Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa, Japan

Toshiro Niki

Affiliations GalPharma Co., Ltd., Kagawa, Japan, Department of Immunology and Immunopathology, Kagawa University Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa, Japan

Paul Eggleton

These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, United Kingdom

Wijnand Helfrich

These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Translational Surgical Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Edwin Bremer

e.bremer@umcg.nl

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Translational Surgical Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Competing Interests

The authors have the following interests: Drs. Niki and Hirashima are board members of GalPharma Co., Ltd. The authors have a product in development: stable-form galectin-9. Name of the patent: NOVEL MODIFIED GALECTIN 9 PROTEINS AND USE THEREOF. Patent numbers: EP1736541, JP4792390, US8268324. There are no further 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, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: DS PE EB WH. Performed the experiments: VW MG DS JG. Analyzed the data: VW EB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MH TN PE RVG. Wrote the paper: MG VW EB. Revised the paper: MG VW EB PE HN WH.