An unprecedented threat
This is the case of a group of experts which includes several Nobel Prize winners. The latter are calling for an end to research to create these “mirror bacteria”, for the simple reason that there is a risk that these synthetic organisms will escape.
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In other words, these bacteria could introduce themselves into our environment and thus attack the human and animal immune systems. “The threat we are talking about is unprecedented. Mirror bacteria would likely evade many reactions of the human, animal and plant immune systems and, in each case, cause fatal infections“, explains Professor Vaughn Cooper, evolutionary biologist at the American University of Pittsburgh in a report published on December 12.
To put it simply, our immune defenses as well as those of animals and plants recognize the molecules present in a bacteria. In the event that the latter is “mirror” and therefore reflected, our immune defenses would not be able to act accordingly because their recognition would be altered and therefore our body would be subject to an infection.
