Not a biologist, but could you engineer this stuff to coat objects that you can use INSIDE the human body, and because its not biodegradable within our body, it wont break down or be attacked by our immune system?
"Biocompatibility", as a material property, is largely a mirage.
Certain materials, in certain specific forms, don't provoke a reaction, but the identical material in a different shape is as bad as anything else.
Canonical example is PTFE, which I have heard described as "biologically inert". A perfectly smooth surface of PTFE might be ignored by the immune system, but a fiber of it poking this or that membrane usually will not be; and once scratched, it has numerous sharp bits.
Wrong. You do directed evolution targetting mirror substrates on the normal protein (since we have the facilities to replicate and evolve normal proteins) then synthesize the mirror equivalent, which will then act on the mirror of the mirror substrates, aka the real substrate.
It won't break down so easily (natural proteases/Xnases probably won't work), but it might still cause an immune reaction. Actually it might cause a worse immune reaction, since it never goes away.
Will it outcompete algae? Even for a total autotroph, salvage pathways are a thing, especially in times of environmental stress,and a mirror algae would not be able to so easily utilize scrap from it's environment.
The wrong chirality form can sometimes be deadly[1], but at best eating it can lead to starvation. Assuming some sustained effort to introduce these organisms to the ecosystem.
I imagine that many of its natural predators (especially viruses) would be rendered ineffective against it, allowing it to outcompete the rest of the ecosystem.
FWIW, the economist just published an article explaining DNA replication that makes this topic much more approachable and understandable for those without background in molecular biology. Dense and worth the read. https://www.economist.com/schools-brief/2021/07/31/biology-b...
>>but because the cocoa plant uses enzymes to make cocaine in a specific 3D way all of the cocaine in its leaves is "bioactive", ie when you take a line off a strippers ass 100% of it will match up with various 3D receptors in your brain
Well that wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but interesting.
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[ 0.24 ms ] story [ 63.6 ms ] threadedit: Okay, I guess it's about the additional discussion below that particular tweet.
[1] https://mobile.twitter.com/NatureBiotech/status/142079563395...
Which is why for example only a few materials are biocompatible.
Certain materials, in certain specific forms, don't provoke a reaction, but the identical material in a different shape is as bad as anything else.
Canonical example is PTFE, which I have heard described as "biologically inert". A perfectly smooth surface of PTFE might be ignored by the immune system, but a fiber of it poking this or that membrane usually will not be; and once scratched, it has numerous sharp bits.
Also a possible problem if you grow mirror algae, which can kill regular zooplankton and so out-compete regular algae.
Also why would it kill zooplankton?
[1] - https://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/~gablek/CH334/Chapter5...
Well that wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but interesting.
I predict it is used to create artificial sweeteners and fat, and sold with inadequate safety testing.
https://www.harvard.com/book/regenesis_how_synthetic_biology...