This week in Manchester, UK, scientists will be deliberating whether to restrict research that could eventually enable ‘mirror life’ — synthetic cells built from molecules that are mirror images of those found in the natural world.
Over the past year, many scientists have voiced concerns over experiments that might lead to the creation of such cells, suggesting that they would pose an enormous risk to human health and the environment. “Pretty much everybody agrees” that mirror-image cells would be “a bad thing”, says John Glass, a synthetic biologist at the J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla, California.
But there are disagreements about where to draw lines to limit research on mirror-image biology, given the potential benefits of such studies.
Many of the molecules in our bodies are ‘chiral’ — that is, they take one of two mirror-image (MI) forms, like right-handed and left-handed gloves. Proteins are built from left-handed amino acids, and DNA twists like a right-handed screw, for example.
I've posted about this long ago, but can't seem to find the article for now.