Scientists are pursuing what could be called nature’s Bizarro: Some labs want to construct cells with molecules mirroring natural ones, a controversial and difficult feat that poses an ethical predicament.
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They hope to reverse nature’s handedness in search of the drugs of the future. Medicines made with mirror molecules could, theoretically, work more effectively over time. Unlike those used in regular drugs, these unusual molecules may not be quickly degraded by enzymes.
Over the past few decades, chemists have figured out how to concoct right-handed proteins by harnessing certain chemical reactions. In 2022, a team in China made enzymes that can generate mirror-image RNA—such work brings us closer to the production of an entire mirror cell, a goal that might arrive in as soon as 10 years. This would translate to “a second tree of life,” synthetic biologist Kate Adamala told The New York Times last year.
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Submission Statement: Mirror microbes, if ever created, could revolutionize drug development—but they could also pose existential threats to people, plants, and animals if they’re infected by these synthetic organisms.
Creating a whole new ‘mirror life’ could be huge for medicine, but aren’t we playing a bit too much god here? What’s the ethical line we’re gonna draw? 🤔