About the Authors

Shu Q. Liu

sliu@northwestern.edu

Affiliation Biomedical Engineering Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America

Derek Roberts

Affiliation Biomedical Engineering Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America

Brian Zhang

Affiliation Biomedical Engineering Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America

Yupeng Ren

Affiliation Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

Li-Qun Zhang

Affiliation Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

Yu H. Wu

Affiliation Biomedical Engineering Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America

Competing Interests

A United States patent application (patent application number (13/462,965))covering TFF3-mediated neuroprotection has been submitted through Northwestern University. The patent application does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SQL LQZ. Performed the experiments: SQL DR YR YHW. Analyzed the data: SQL DR BZ YHW. Wrote the manuscript: SQL.