Extremophiles thriving in toxic waste, subject of cancer research

This is the unlikely and highly ironic story about 37 billion gallons of toxic waste water sitting in a lake generated from an abandoned strip mine, acting as the home for very hearty bacteria known as extremophiles, which are being studied by cancer researchers for a possible future therapy.

This is a piece published in the latest issue of Wired, written by Guy Gugliotta who I recently telephoned to get more info about this story.

The Berkeley Pit Lake in Butte, Montana was designated one of the first Superfund sites by the government some 25 years ago. Since then all that can be done is to try to maintain the water level at a constant height.

Cancer researchers became interested in the resident extremophiles since they might produce unique compounds that might have therapeutic activity.

As it turned out, several cancer cell lines were shown to be inhibited by these compounds, but this is only the beginning stages of working them up as possible anticancer candidates.