Scientists call for a ban on “mirror-life” research before it is too late |

Arroy (AJ) Jacob, Web Editor | 

Cellular biologists don’t get enough credit for their work. It’s a privilege to witness the creation of life at its original size—microscopic, a size everyone still only attempts to comprehend. However, many questions remain regarding the potential of biology at the cellular level.

Synthetic biologists, however, attempt to answer these questions, especially those at Stanford University, by explaining theoretically that it is possible to create artificial organisms at the molecular level and “mirror life.”

Until one day, they stopped dead in their tracks and realized that further research on creating these synthetic organisms would threaten to overturn all life on Earth.

Kate Adamala, a synthetic biologist and genetics professor at the University of Minnesota, sat on an interview with CBC Radio to explain why she and her team had called for an immediate and global ban on further research on “mirror-life.”

What is “mirror life”?

All living organisms on Earth are comprised of molecules, particularly DNA and amino acids. These elongated chains of molecules make proteins, including leaf stems, fingernails, and the blood-brain barrier.

For billions of years of evolution, as if life has a mind of its own, it had decided that there are two ways for sugars and amino acids to exist: sugars are right-handed, or “points to the right,” and amino acids are left-handed, or “points to the left.” In biochemistry, these are called the “right conformations” and “left conformations” respectively.

All living organisms exist because these molecules choose to only exist in these conformations. These sugars and amino acids are the basic building blocks for cells, tissues, organs and all living life known to Earth. It is infrequent for left-handed sugars and right-handed amino acids to exist in nature, which are considered anomalies.

Until this year, when synthetic biologists revealed that it’s entirely plausible to create our own molecules that “mirror” those that exist in nature.

“Life is very particular about what direction all our molecules point. And it is possible to imagine making a cell where all molecules point exactly the opposite direction. That’s why we call it ‘mirror-life,’” Adamala told CBC.

Once a collection of “mirror molecules” is synthesized, they can function within a mirror image of a bacterial cell, such as within E. coli or Bacillus subtis, and adapt, grow and colonize into a new, unpredictable chain of evolution.

Adamala recounts with CBC News that mirror life would be a scientific breakthrough. “We thought that it would be a great medicine. We thought we would be able to make cell-based therapeutics. And we could use it for bio-manufacturing; we could use it to make molecules in bioreactors that are not susceptible to external contaminations.”

“It would be one of the biggest scientific discoveries you could think of; it’s creating another life form.”

Mirror life is a fascinating hypothesis that would put the premise of Jurassic Park to shame. But Adamala highlights scientists’ fears more than their fascinations.

The risk to all life on Earth

Recall that all of life has set out its own rules for how molecules must exist in nature, either in the right conformation or the left conformation. For trillions of years, it has only been known that these molecules could exist in this way.

If humans were to synthesize “mirror molecules,” there would be devastating consequences, according to a report by Stanford University.

Their first concern is that the human immune system would be incredibly vulnerable to an outbreak of mirror molecules in a pathogenic cell.

Your immune system has only ever known to search for either the left or right conformations of specific pathogens to fight it. If that same pathogen were synthesized in the “opposite” direction, your body would not be able to recognize it.

“Everything you sense with your molecular sensors with your receptors on your cells has to be of the [correct] confirmation and has to point the [correct] way to be detected.”

Stanford University says that pathogens such as the common cold and the flu would suddenly become dangerous bioweapons if created using mirror molecules.

Their other concerns are that similar to how our bodies would not be able to fight off these foreign invaders, beings in nature would not be better at controlling them.

Adamala says that “it would grow uncontrollably, it would grow persistently and we would have no way of eating it, fighting it in the environment so the consequences for the environment could be catastrophic. And that’s why we think this should not happen, this should not be made.”

Are we doomed?

No, because Adamala and numerous other scientists headlined a biosecurity policy forum through Science in conjunction with a technical report through Stanford University calling for a global ban of mirror life research and to facilitate a new conversation in bioethics between biologists, policy-makers, and the general public.

When asked in her interview with CBC News whether a rogue scientist would study mirror life secretly, she says, “that’s the advantage of us talking about it early right now, as the technology is not there yet for one person to go and make a mirror cell.”

“We are obviously driven by curiosity, we obviously want to do the cool things, but we also want to do it safely. That’s the main driving force of science, to make people’s lives better, not worse.”

Arroy (AJ) Jacob is the Web Editor for The Reflector 2024-2025. He is majoring in Cellular & Molecular Biology, and minoring in Creative Writing at Mount Royal University. He hopes to continue making scientific breakthroughs accessible, inclusive, and entertaining.