'Unprecedented risk' to life on Earth: scientists call for halt on 'mirror life' microbe research

World-leading scientists have called for a halt on research to create "mirror life" microbes amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present an "unprecedented risk" to life.

- Ian Sample

The international group of Nobel laureates and other experts warn that mirror bacteria, constructed from mirror images of molecules found in nature, could become established and slip past the immune defences of natural organisms, putting humans, animals and plants at risk of lethal infections.

Although a viable mirror microbe would probably take at least a decade to build, a new risk assessment raised such serious concerns that the 38-strong group urged scientists to stop work towards the goal and asked funders to end their support for it.

"The threat we're talking about is unprecedented," said Prof Vaughn Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Pittsburgh. "Mirror bacteria would likely evade many human, animal and plant immune system responses and in each case would cause lethal infections that would spread without check."