Biomolecules are Left or Right Handed

Just like us, our biomedical world is either left or right-handed. For example, proteins, the machines of our cells are left-handed molecules.  A DNA helix is right-handed which means the helix twists to the right.  Other right-handed molecules in our cells are sugars such as glucose.   

Adding another layer to that, right-handed molecules are called “D” as in the letter D-forms and left-handed molecules are “L” forms.  We’re talking here about chemical chirality. Think of it this way.  A left-handed glove fits your left hand but not the right. While our hands are structurally identical, one is the mirror image of the other - the same with molecules.  

Most of our amino acids, which make up proteins, come in the L-form. If you bioengineered a protein with the same amino acids but of the D-form, it’d be shaped differently and may not do its job but what if all the molecules were that form.   Scientists may soon discover how un-natural mirror images would impact biology. They’re close to possibly making a mirror-image bacterium, but it’s making waves.  

We don’t know how humans or the environment might react to these new life forms.  Could a mirror form of a disease-causing bacteria make us sick? And would our immune system or medicines be able to control them?    Scientists are a decade away from being able to produce these mirror life forms. Even though it would give us a wealth of information on the shapes and functions of biomolecules, there must be extreme safeguards to prevent them from getting out.