Creating mirrored organisms using synthetic biology could seriously harm extant life, a 300-page report claims. While the risks from mirrored life are uncertain, it is best not to find out.
Excellent analysis of both the risks and potential benefits that may be best foregone. Though, I wonder if we could use synthetic and cell free methods to still synthesize mirror biomolecules. A mirrored ribosome doesn’t have to exist only in a mirrored cell. Could that allow us to access some of those mirrored peptide medicines and other potentially more robust mirror biomaterials, without the risk of uncontrolled spread?
Wow, awesome analysis! You bring in so much more context and it is all fascinating and mind boggling. One possibility I haven't heard a lot of discussion on is building hybrid cells that contain both mirrored versions of the central dogma. A sort of partitioned life I guess. The ethics seem better since youre not abandoning the old chiral forms. But they might be able to pump out mirror enzymes faster than solid phase synthesis.
(Niko here). That's a great point, and I think it'd be plausible to encode a mirrored (and orthogonal) Central Dogma inside of a normal cell. A mirrored plasmid could carry the required genes solely for protein synthesis and maintenance, for example, in addition to a recombinant gene of interest for bioproduction.
Excellent analysis of both the risks and potential benefits that may be best foregone. Though, I wonder if we could use synthetic and cell free methods to still synthesize mirror biomolecules. A mirrored ribosome doesn’t have to exist only in a mirrored cell. Could that allow us to access some of those mirrored peptide medicines and other potentially more robust mirror biomaterials, without the risk of uncontrolled spread?
Wow, awesome analysis! You bring in so much more context and it is all fascinating and mind boggling. One possibility I haven't heard a lot of discussion on is building hybrid cells that contain both mirrored versions of the central dogma. A sort of partitioned life I guess. The ethics seem better since youre not abandoning the old chiral forms. But they might be able to pump out mirror enzymes faster than solid phase synthesis.
(Niko here). That's a great point, and I think it'd be plausible to encode a mirrored (and orthogonal) Central Dogma inside of a normal cell. A mirrored plasmid could carry the required genes solely for protein synthesis and maintenance, for example, in addition to a recombinant gene of interest for bioproduction.
What a fascinating read! This was a great revision of my high school biology studies.
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