Mining microbial treasures from toxic sites

(American Chemical Society) Filled with a noxious brew of copper, cadmium and arsenic, with a pH rivaling that of sulfuric acid, Montana's Berkeley Pit seems inhospitable to life. Nonetheless, scientists have discovered microorganisms in this abandoned copper mine and other human-made noxious sites. These extreme environments induce microbes to synthesize potent, never-before-seen molecules that could find uses in human medicine, according to an article in Chemical& Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society.
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news