Principal Investigator M. Reza Ghadiri, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry at TSRI, has created a biological polymer that can discriminate between two types of building blocks, taking those that are similar and building a copy of itself with them.
Information transfer is one of the most fundamental requirements for life.
Part of this work is replicating and dividing the DNA so that the cell can split into two new daughter cells. Life is defined by these replication processes. What is also known is that all the DNA, RNA, and protein molecules in our bodies are all homochiral. They come in two non-superimposable mirror image forms, like your right and left hand. Since only the correct forms of these building blocks of life can be used, a natural question arises.