After a Copper Mine in Butte, Montana closed in 1982, the pit mine filled with groundwater, becaming a Toxic Lake - an “extreme environment,” where “normal” life forms could not exist. Dissolved metal compounds such as iron pyrites dropped the lake’s pH to 2.5, making it an “Acid Pit,” in which normal aquatic life could not survive.
In 1995, Andrea Stierle, a chemist from the University of Montana, analyzed the lake’s waters and was surprised to discover novel forms of bacteria and fungi in the lake. Stierle’s science team found a strain of fungus that produces a compound that binds to a receptor in the human body which causes migranes, and thus has the potential to block migrane headaches. The group also discovered another strain of penicillium fungus which inhibits the growth of lung cancer cells. Most recently, the researchers discovered that another strain of the penicillium fungus produced a novel compound (berkelic acid), which reduces the growth-rate of ovarian cancer cells by 50 percent. (more…)