About the Authors

Kenan Izgi

Affiliations Department of Urology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, Department of Clinical Chemistry, Cleveland State University, Cleveland,, Ohio, United States of America

Cengiz Z. Altuntas

Current address: Texas Institute of Biotechnology Education and Research, North American College, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Affiliation Department of Urology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Fuat Bicer

Affiliations Department of Urology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, Department of Clinical Chemistry, Cleveland State University, Cleveland,, Ohio, United States of America

Ahmet Ozer

Affiliations Department of Urology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, Department of Genetics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Cagri Sakalar

Affiliation Department of Immunology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Xiaoxia Li

Affiliation Department of Immunology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Vincent K. Tuohy

Affiliation Department of Immunology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Firouz Daneshgari

fxd22@case.edu

Affiliation Department of Urology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CZA XL VKT FD. Performed the experiments: KI CZA FB AO. Analyzed the data: KI CZA CS XL VKT FD. Wrote the paper: KI CZA CS VKT FD.