Medical Discovery News
Science permeates everyday life. Yet the understanding of advances in biomedical science is limited at best. Few people make the connection that biomedical science is medicine and that biomedical scientists are working today for the medicine of tomorrow. Our weekly five-hundred-word newspaper column (http://www.illuminascicom.com/) and two-minute radio show provide insights into a broad range of biomedical science topics. Medical Discovery News is dedicated to explaining discoveries in biomedical research and their promise for the future of medicine. Each release is designed to stimulate listeners to think, question and appreciate how science affects their health as well as that of the rest of the world. We also delve into significant biomedical discoveries and portray how science (or the lack of it) has impacted health throughout history.
Medical Discovery News
A Concerning Look in the Mirror (Biomolecules are Left or Right Handed)
960 A Concerning Look in the Mirror (Biomolecules are Left or Right Handed)
Welcome to Medical Discovery News. I’m Dr Norbert Herzog.
And I’m Dr. David Niesel
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.
We are Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog, at UTMB and Quinnipiac University, where biomedical discoveries shape the future of medicine. For much more and our disclaimer go to medicaldiscoverynews.comor subscribe to our podcast. Sign up for expanded print episodes at www.illuminascicom.com
