Imagine if the world’s scientists had joined forces to stop the development of the atomic bomb before it was made. Something similar is now happening with a threat that can come as just as big a shock: Mirrored forms of life. – We believe that mirrored life can cause catastrophic problems for life on Earth. We should stop trying to create mirror life until we understand the risks better, says J. Craig Venter. J. Craig Waiter led one of the groups that mapped the complete human genome and has subsequently worked with synthetic organisms. Photo: Brett Shipe / J. Craig Venter Institute J. Craig Venter was one of the leaders behind the complete human gene map. Now he is worried that we can use mirrored genes to build a completely mirrored organism. Now he goes out together with 37 leading researchers with a clear warning to the world in the scientific journal Science. They will stop the development of artificial, mirrored life forms. Two of the researchers are Nobel Prize winners and several have themselves researched what could eventually lead to mirror-image bacteria. Almost like aliens – Mirror beings are a completely new, alien type of life with unexpected characteristics, almost like aliens. So it’s probably best to be careful, says Erlend Gløer Teigset. Teigset himself does research on artificial life at NTNU, but not on mirror organisms. He believes the reason why people have researched this is that mirror organisms and mirror molecules can pass through the body without being detected. It may be useful in medicine. Mirrored medicine can be used, among other things, in cancer treatment. Erlend Gløer Teigset is doing a PhD on artificial life and AI at Lale Lab at NTNU in Trondheim. Photo: Jørgen Leangen / news What makes conventional medicine good is the same thing that worries the researchers in Science. The immune system only recognizes the familiar forms. – Our immune system is trained to recognize specific patterns in infectious organisms, like a key in a lock. If you reverse the organisms, the patterns will be different, and may therefore be difficult or impossible for the immune system to recognize, explains Teigset. Bacteria on the run Nobel Prize winner Jack Szostak at the University of Chicago did not think mirror bacteria were dangerous at first. Now he has turned around. – If robust mirror bacteria were created and released into nature (or escaped), the result could be catastrophic irreversible damage. Perhaps far worse than any challenge we have faced in the past – and far beyond our ability to handle. Mirrored bacteria are unable to recognize normal mirrored human cells, but can thrive in the bloodstream and lead to blood poisoning and death, the researchers warn. Illustration: Colourbox An organism made up of mirrored molecules can also live and reproduce in nature. It will probably be invisible to many of nature’s methods of keeping species in check, according to Professor John Glass. – The danger with mirror life is that it is fundamentally different. Mirror bacteria can be impossible to defeat for the normal world due to their inverted molecular shape. John Glass is professor and director of the J. Craig Venter Institute and works with artificial life. Photo: Brett Shipe / J. Craig Venter Institute – It is important that we stop this risk before it occurs, continues the professor who led the work to create the first synthetic bacterial cell. The researchers in Science write that it will be possible to develop mirror-image antibiotics or vaccines against the microbes. But they are skeptical that we would be able to stop the spread if mirrored life forms are released into the environment first. Don’t lose sleep at night – Fully mirrored organisms would theoretically have trouble surviving in the wild, as they would be dependent on mirrored substances that do not exist naturally. But if they develop or are given the ability to live on our “normal” substances, they can be destructive as invasive species, explains Erlend Gløer Teigset. The Science researchers are afraid of lab leaks or that mirror organisms could be developed as weapons. They estimate that with current technological developments, mirror bacteria may see the light of day in a decade at the earliest. – Before we start losing sleep over this, it is important to note that the risk from mirror bacteria is not immediate, says Jonathan Jones, at the Sainsbury laboratory in England. – The scientific community has looked ahead and seen significant risks from mirror bacteria in the distance. The risks are big enough that we want to start a public discussion now, concludes the Briton. Published 12/12/2024, at 20.12
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Mirror-turned bacteria are a threat to most life, scientists warn – news Trøndelag – Local news, TV and radio
