The laboratory has created "mirror bacteria" that can destroy humanity: world's leading scientists urgently appeal to colleagues

Leading scientists around the world have called for an end to research on "mirror bacteria" that have been created in the laboratory. Experts warn that these organisms, formed from mirror images of molecules found in nature, could put humans, animals, and plants at risk of deadly infections.

An international group of Nobel Prize winners and other experts emphasizes that mirror bacteria can take root in the environment and bypass the immune defenses of natural organisms. So before it's too late, it's time to stop any laboratory research on dangerous organisms, The Guardian writes.

"The threat we're talking about is unprecedented Mirror bacteria are likely to evade many of the immune system responses of humans, animals, and plants and in each case cause lethal infections that will spread unimpeded," said the University of Pittsburgh evolutionary biologist Professor Vaughn Cooper.

The expert group includes Dr. Craig Venter, an American scientist who led the private effort to sequence the human genome in the 1990s, as well as Nobel laureates Professor Greg Winter of the University of Cambridge and Professor Jack Szostak of the University of Chicago.

The risk of mirror life is that living organisms will not recognize their mirror counterparts as "alien" and will have no natural defenses to protect themselves from their attack. Humans and other living organisms will find it difficult to produce antibodies against mirror bacteria and will not be able to control the infection," said Greg Winter, according to the DailyMail.

According to scientists, many molecules can exist in two different forms, each of which is a mirror image of the other. The DNA of all living organisms consists of "right-handed" nucleotides, while proteins, the building blocks of cells, are made up of "left-handed" amino acids.

Scientists have made large, functional mirror molecules to study them more closely. Some have even taken small steps toward creating mirror microbes, although building an entire organism out of mirror molecules is beyond the scope of current know-how, experts say.

Scientists emphasize that mirror molecules could be turned into a treatment for chronic diseases that are difficult to cure, while mirror microbes could make bioproduction plants that use beetles to produce chemicals more resistant to contamination.

However, scientists see significant risks in mirror microbes. In addition to causing deadly infections, researchers doubt that the microbes can be safely contained or kept at bay by natural competitors and predators. Existing antibiotics are also unlikely to be effective.

"Unless there is convincing evidence that mirror life does not pose an extreme danger, we believe that these organisms, even with specially designed biocontainment measures, should not be created," the group of scientists warns.

Kate Adamala, a synthetic biologist at the University of Minnesota and co-author of the report, had been working on a mirror cell, but last year changed course after a detailed study of the risks. "We should not build mirror life," she emphasized.

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