Liyam Chitayat and Kate Adamala
For many years, researchers have been pursuing the development of what scientists have called “mirror life.” This evocative term refers to a fundamental property of biological life. All biological molecules have what is called chirality, a feature more colloquially understood as “handedness.” Just as left and right hands cannot be superimposed on each other, so, too, does biological matter function in this way. Natural life exhibits a striking molecular uniformity: proteins are constructed almost exclusively from “left-handed” amino acids, while DNA employs “right-handed” sugars. The creation of mirror life would entail a deliberate inversion of this biological paradigm, through the development in laboratories of synthetic organisms built from the opposite-handed versions of these essential molecular components. Such organisms would constitute living systems that are functionally equivalent to natural life but composed of molecules that are the complete chiral inverse of every living entity on Earth. That would, in effect, allow scientists to look at life through a biological mirror.
Mirror life remains a distant prospect: it could take researchers ten to 30 years to create a mirror cell that would be able to perform the hallmark activities of life. But this technology could have many uses. It could help scientists explore the origins of life, as reconstructing biochemistry on the “other side” would provide insights into how life evolved on Earth and could occur on other planets in the solar system. Mirror life could also find many potential applications in medicine and biomanufacturing. Human bodies, for instance, are not yet equipped to degrade mirror molecules, so therapeutics based on such molecules could prove to be more stable and durable than current ones.
Yet the very characteristics that would make mirror life so valuable for research and therapeutic applications—its resistance to natural degradation, its invisibility to evolved systems of immunological response and biological controls, and its independence from existing ecological constraints—are precisely what make it a potentially existential threat. A study released in July, co-authored by one of us (Adamala), suggests that mirror bacteria might be able, for instance, to evade existing immunological responses to bacteria and other germs. This could lead to untreatable infections that spread through human, animal, and plant populations. Mirror organisms could also act like the ultimate invasive species, thriving without natural predators or competitors while potentially displacing beneficial microbes that ecosystems depend on. Even more concerning, conventional antibiotics and antiviral treatments would likely be ineffective against mirror pathogens since these drugs target specific molecular structures that would be reversed in mirror life. Whether released accidentally or intentionally, mirror organisms could simultaneously bypass human biological defenses, resist medical treatments, and disrupt the ecological balance.
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