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He foreshadowed the success of the programs when he promised the "regional approach" it would create to training in the coal industry in particular. "Industry, the college and the state agree this is the perfect cen- tral location, and with our history and record in coal mining train- ing, we're excited about the potential here," Holstein said. One of the larger fire training programs for existing and potential brigade members is at West Virginia University. The WVU Mining Extension simulated underground mine lab at Dolls Run in Core, northern West Virginia, came online in October 2009, and today offers one of the most realistic mine fire experiences available nationwide. In addition to the full-facet ventilation features at the facility, crews can experience the heat and intensity of a live fire at the mine's burn area and see the inside environment of an actual refuge chamber. Mobile training units at the simulated mine are equipped with a changeable smoke maze, or confidence maze, for SCBA practice as well as SCSR expectations training drills. Hands-on extinguisher and hose experience training using remotely controlled fire plans is another feature of the MTUs. WVU's simulated mine also has a working 4-in. water line along a conveyor belt, powered by surface sources and complete with fire taps and shut-off valves for use in the smoky, alarming environment that a mine can transform into during an actual mine fire event. Training is conducted at the WVU Dolls Run facility by a staff from the school's mining extension division; other instructors include fire experts working out of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in southern West Virginia. Dolls Run often plays host to industry competitions; last September it welcomed six teams from Murray Energy for the producer's annual fire brigade competition that included contests of self-contained breathing apparatus examinations, a search-and-find mapping and navigation exercise, a physical challenge that involved firefighting f i r e f i g h t i n g c o n t i n u e d March 2014 www.coalage.com 29 A cross-section of the training facilities at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beaver, W. Va. (Image courtesy of MSHA) Could the mine fires of yesterday play a role in saving lives tomorrow? Moreover, could the next new drug to fight cancer come from the deep mines of Kentucky? Possibly, according to one of the state's major universities. Last November, researchers at the University of Kentucky's Center for Pharmaceutical Research and Innovation (CPRI) said that, as part of an ongoing quest to develop the latest and most effective drugs for disease treatment, it was looking deep underground for answers to this very question. Under a new UK-based bioprospecting initiative involving a collaboration between CPRI, the Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) and the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS), the groups are collecting samples from unusual environ- ments throughout the commonwealth of Kentucky with the goal of finding new and unique organisms that produce natural products that could potentially be used to develop new drugs with an initial focus on treatments for cancer, infectious disease and inflammation. According to UK, many existing effective drugs are made by microbes; the antibiotic erythromycin, for example, is a natural product formed by bacteria found in soil. The anticancer agent doxorubicin is also a microbial-produced natural product. CPRI Director Jon Thorson and an 11-member lab team said late last year that they had joined a large consortium of investigators at the school who are all focused on the discovery and development of natural product-based drug leads from unique sources including bacteria, fungi and plants. Thorson also serves as the co-director of the Markey Cancer Center's Drug Discovery, Delivery and Translational Therapeutics Program and co-director of the Drug Discovery and Development Core in the UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science. "The University of Kentucky is a remarkably rich and highly collaborative com- munity for natural products-based research. As part of this effort, we are looking for new microbes that can product novel bioactive molecules," Thorson said. "Instead of looking in places where other people have already been, we're trying to access new frontiers. The collaboration with CAER and KGS allows us to sample unexplored environments in the context of natural products discovery." The most recent "new frontier" that Thorson's lab is exploring has very deep roots in the commonwealth, both literally and figuratively. How do those past fires play a role? Well, through the collaborations with CAER and KGS, Thorson said the team has an opportunity to study products taken from Kentucky underground and surface coal mines, including thermal vents from under- ground coal mine fires, mining reclamation sites and deep-well core drilling opera- tions for carbon sequestration. The initial collaboration with CAER involved studying emissions, and the corre- sponding microbes, associated with underground coal fires. The heat of the fires combines with the varying flora and mineral makeup of each site to create a distinc- tive environment for sampling. "We decided that the coal fire sites were a very good starting point, because they are fairly unique," CAER principal research scientist Jim Hower said. "They're really a prime target for sampling." CAER has further helped drive the success of this project by introducing CPRI to new contacts in the commonwealth, Thorson added. Hower and Greg Copley of CAER introduced CPRI to additional collaborators within the CAER as well as leaders of U.S. Coal subsidiary Licking River Resources and the Kentucky Division of Abandoned Mine Lands, both of which have facilitated CPRI access to additional unique collec- tion sites. Through KGS' core drilling operation, Thorson's team has also accessed samples from deep underground; in fact, during drilling in the eastern Kentucky coalfield ear- lier this year, more than 40 samples of drill cuttings from depths ranging from 100 ft to nearly one mile underground were collected and sent to Thorson's lab. Drill cut- tings are ground rock that are continuously pumped out of a well during the drilling process. "Once you drill below about 2,000 ft, the salt concentrations in the water found in pores in the rocks are about three to five times that of the ocean," KGS research geologist Rick Bowersox said. "As might be expected in a subsurface environment, the microbes are very different from those in a typical surface soil environment. These microbes have adapted to an environment of extremes in water chemistry, pressure and temperature." While barely a year old, Thorson's program has already deposited more than 75 compounds in the new UK natural products repository — all from microbes found in Kentucky. Could Kentucky's natural landscape potentially yield the next big cancer drug? Thorson said he has high hopes. "Natural products have been and continue to be a driving force in drug discov- ery," he said. "And the hope is that some of tomorrow's therapies may come from the coal mines here in the commonwealth." Finding a Future in Fire Continued on Page 41... CA_pg26-29_V2_CA_pg46-47 3/11/14 9:22 AM Page 29