Life, but not as we know it

Biology is nowadays being discovered and redesigned with machine learning methods. For example, instead of using animals to produce new antibody therapeutics, they are being designed on a computer. To produce something useful, such as a new therapeutic, computational discoveries need to be translated into laboratory experiments. This is often where computational pipelines stall. While computational methods are not perfect, many translation issues could be overcome by understanding the biases of these methods. By understanding how these models tick, we can anticipate when they will fail and fix them before sending results to the laboratory. So, how do we open up these black boxes and tweak them to work better on our data?

Mirror-image biochemistry utilises molecules of opposite chirality to those found in nature. It has become a major focus of research and there is a growing number of applications in biotechnology. The ultimate challenge would be the creation of a mirror bacterium: a currently still hypothetical, fully synthetic organism built completely from such opposite-chirality biomolecules. This scenario has attracted increasing scientific and societal attention due to the potential of such an organism to evade ecological and immunological constraints, posing potentially severe risks. I will review the state of the art of mirror-image biochemistry and discuss future prospects, including the scientific and societal aspects of developments toward the creation of a mirror-image synthetic cell.

From early anatomical illustrations of the human body to cell diagrams in school textbooks, art has long been used to convey scientific information. But what if we consider the relationship between art and science the other way around? What could we gain from using science as an inspiration for artistic creation without aiming to communicate scientific knowledge? Ayelen Valko is a visual artist and cell biologist who creates art inspired by science, using a wide range of techniques and expressive elements to create emotional connections while moving beyond strict biological realism.