Gregory stephanopoulos and colleagues reply to screening cellular metabolic activity

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Gregory Stephanopoulos and colleagues reply: El Debs and Merten1 contend that “this approach” (i.e., of an integrated microfluidic device

described in our paper2 allowing the encapsulation of cells into droplets, which can be incubated, injected into a second device, fused and sorted) was not introduced by us. Furthermore,

they claim that “the general concept of combining different droplet manipulation modules into a single, fully integrated, cell screening device was patented even earlier, with a priority

date of July 13, 2007.” We rebut their claims on priority with the following timeline of events. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access

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Instant access to full article PDF Buy now Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional

subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support REFERENCES * El Debs, B. & Merten, C.A. _Nat. Biotechnol._ 32, xx–xx (2014). Google Scholar  * Wang, B.L. et al. _Nat.

Biotechnol._ 32, 473–478 (2014). Article  CAS  Google Scholar  * Wang, B.L., Zhou, H., Weitz, D.A. & Stephanopoulos, G.N. Oral presentation at 2008 American Institute of Chemical

Engineers Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, November 17, 2008. * Wang, B.L., Zhou, H., Agresti, J., Weitz, D.A. & Stephanopoulos, G.N. Oral presentation at Metabolic Engineering VII: Health

and Sustainability, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, September 17, 2008. * Wang, B.L., Zhou, H., Weitz, D.A. & Stephanopoulos, G.N. Oral presentation at American Chemical Society 236th National

Meeting, Philadelphia, August 19, 2008. * Weitz, D.A. et al. Droplet-based selection. US patent application 20090068170 (2009). * El Debs, B., Utharala, R., Balyasnikova, I.V., Griffiths,

A.D. & Merten, C.A. _Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA_ 109, 11570–11575 (2012). Article  CAS  Google Scholar  * Wang, B.L., Humphry, K., Weitz, D.A. & Stephanopoulos, G.N. Microfluidic

droplets for metabolic engineering systems. US patent application 20100124759 (2010). * Wang, B.L. _High Throughput Screen for Cells with High Extracellular Metabolite Consumption/Secretion

Rates Using Microfluidic Droplets_. PhD thesis, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA (2009). Google Scholar  Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * European Molecular Biology

Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Meyerhofstrasse 1, Heidelberg, 69115, Germany Bachir el Debs, Ramesh Utharala & Christoph A Merten Authors * Bachir el Debs View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Ramesh Utharala View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Christoph A

Merten View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Christoph A Merten. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS

The author declare no competing financial interests. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE el Debs, B., Utharala, R. & Merten, C. Gregory

Stephanopoulos and colleagues reply to Screening cellular metabolic activity. _Nat Biotechnol_ 32, 1092–1093 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3059 Download citation * Published: 07

November 2014 * Issue Date: November 2014 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3059 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable

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