Scientists Hope Microbes Found In Toxic Waste Can Yield Lifesaving Drugs
by Robert Glisci, DDS, PC on 05/15/19
Extreme environments like Superfund sites host microbes that survive their habitats by synthesizing potent compounds. From abandoned copper mines in Montana and Vermont to a coal seam in Kentucky that’s been burning for half a century, natural product chemists have begun to identify potential new pharmaceuticals in the most unlikely of places.
“Extremely hostile environments are an evolutionary playground,” says Tomasz Boruta, a bioprocess engineer at Lodz University of Technology, in Poland. “Organisms need to evolve all sorts of new compounds to adapt to those harsh conditions.”
Read More at:
Comments (0)
