A Conversation with Ting Zhu

Despite their seemingly limitless diversity, all forms of life rely on biomolecules of a certain “handedness”specifically L-amino acids and D-nucleic acids. Nature rarely uses the mirror-image versions of these molecules, D-amino acids and L-nucleic acids. Ting Zhu of Tsinghua University hopes to fill that gap by creating not only mirror-image (MI) DNA strands but also MI enzymes that can copy this unnatural DNA, transcribe it into MI RNA, and, eventually, translate the MI RNA into MI protein. The mirror-image system could offer a new approach to drug design and even help scientists understand the origins of life. Mark Peplow joins Zhu on a trip through the looking glass.