Several world-renowned scientists have called for a halt to research into creating so-called ‘mirror microbes’ amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present a “unprecedented risk” for life on Earth, according to The Guardian.
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Experts fear that if research in this field were to continue, humans, animals and plants could end up facing lethal infections.
The international group of Nobel laureates and other experts warn that mirror bacteria, built from mirror images of molecules found in nature, could establish themselves in the environment and bypass the immune defenses of natural organisms.
Although creating a viable mirror microbe would likely take at least a decade, a new risk assessment raised such serious concerns about the organisms that the 38-person panel urged scientists to halt work on it and asked the funders to make it clear that they would no longer support the research.
“The threat we are talking about is unprecedented. Mirror bacteria would probably evade many responses of human immune system, animal and plant, and in each case would cause fatal infections that would spread unchecked,” said Professor Vaughn Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Pittsburgh.
Among the experts who are part of the mentioned group are also Dr. Craig Venter, the American scientist who led private efforts to sequence the human genome in the 1990s, but also Nobel laureates Prof. Greg Winter from Cambridge University and Prof. Jack Szostak of the University of Chicago.
What are specks in the mirror?
Many molecules necessary for life can exist in two distinct forms, each a mirror image of the other. The DNA of all living organisms is made of “right-handed” nucleotides, while proteins, the building blocks of cells, are made of “left-handed” amino acids. Why nature works this way is unclear.
Scientists have already made large, functional mirror molecules to study them more closely. Some have even taken small steps toward making mirrored microbes, although building an entire organism from mirrored molecules is beyond current knowledge.
Mirror molecules vs. microbes in the mirror
The activity is motivated by fascination and potential applications. Mirror molecules could be turned into therapies for chronic and hard-to-treat diseases, while mirror microbes could make bioproduction facilities more resistant to contamination.
Concerns about this technology are revealed in a report published in the journal Science. While appreciating research on mirror molecules, the report believes that mirror microbes pose substantial risks and calls for a global debate on this activity.
Researchers doubt the microbes will be able to be safely contained, and existing antibiotics are unlikely to be effective against them.
“Unless compelling evidence emerges that they would not pose extraordinary dangers, we believe that mirror bacteria and other mirror organisms should not be created“, the authors write in Science.
