A Nobel Prize-winning biologist has warned about deadly artificial bacteria capable of taking over human bodies amid rising interest in ‘mirror bacteria’. Mirror bacteria represent an alarming leap in synthetic biology, where all biological molecules are replaced with their ‘mirrored’ counterparts. While the technology to create such entities is still years away, its potential ramifications have prompted an urgent call for caution.
Last week, 38 prominent scientists issued a dire plea to halt research into these lethal organisms. Professor Gregory Winter, a molecular biologist at the University of Cambridge and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (2018), elaborated to MailOnline on how these artificial entities could devastate human health.
“If they found their way into the blood, colonies of mirror bacteria could, for example, block up blood vessels, leading to failure of circulation and strokes,” warned Professor Winter. “Or they could colonize the sites of wounds, leading to wounds that don’t heal, helping infection by existing pathogenic bacteria.”
To make matters worse, developing vaccines against such infections might prove “impossible,” he added.
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Life on Earth is built on molecules with specific handedness, or ‘chirality.’ DNA spirals to the right, and proteins are composed of left-handed amino acids. Mirror bacteria, however, would invert this natural order, creating life forms based entirely on reversed chirality. While identical in many ways, these mirrored molecules would be virtually unrecognizable to existing biological systems.
Professor Winter highlighted how these bacteria could exploit non-chiral nutrients within living organisms to proliferate. “Infecting mirror bacteria could grow in living organisms using the non-chiral molecules as a source of nutrients,” he explained. This growth could lead to physical blockages in the body, such as clogged blood vessels with potentially fatal outcomes.
Our immune systems, honed to combat naturally occurring threats, would be powerless against these synthetic invaders. “Human white cells in the blood have evolved to recognize and digest invading bacteria, but the ‘left-handed’ enzymes involved would struggle to digest ‘right-handed’ proteins of the mirror bacteria,” he said.
An outbreak of mirror bacteria could escalate rapidly, as these organisms evolve to become more infectious. Unlike fictional pathogens in films like 12 Monkeys and Contagion, mirror bacteria wouldn’t limit themselves to human hosts. They could infect plants and animals with equal ease, wreaking havoc on ecosystems and food supplies.
Dr. Jonathan Jones, a plant disease expert from the Sainsbury Laboratory, warned, “If this played out, you might end up with a bacterium that could grow on all plants; so it’s not just the crop plants we need to worry about, it’s the whole ecosystem.”
For now, the threat remains largely theoretical. Creating fully functioning mirror bacteria would require decades of research and colossal investments, estimated to run into tens of millions of dollars for even modest advancements. Dr. Andreas Plückthun, a protein engineering expert from the University of Zurich, described the effort as requiring “the concerted effort of a thousand people for 20 years.”
Moreover, mirror proteins—a key precursor to mirror bacteria—are currently being explored for beneficial applications, such as innovative cancer therapies. “One has to realize that the effort to do this is so huge and that the time needed would be so long that this is a super remote possibility that surely doesn’t worry me,” Dr. Plückthun reassured.
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