Real Vegan Cheese : DIYbio Project 1

Vegan's cop a hard time when it comes to food. For some it's a choice, for others it's definitely not a choice, in the end vegans are normally limited in choices for food. That's not the case for cheese according to a joint project in the Bay Area.

A team of BioHackers and Scientists in San Francisco CA, from two spaces, Counter Culture Labs and BioCurious, are teaming up as well as sourcing help from volunteers (citizen scientists) to bring the world the first alternative to animal made cheese using bakers yeast. They hope to make real vegan cheese. While some think this will be a major source of income, a quick look at their project Wiki shows that they intend to keep this technology free for the public by patenting it and abandoning it.

This isn't just good news for Vegans though, it's also a huge plus for our environment and food sustainability. Farm animals contribute dozens of polluting gasses, including those that effect the climate. In addition, deforestation occurs on grand proportions to establish new grazing areas to support demand for animal based foods, many of these farm animals are exposed to various forms of animal cruelty. Alleviating the demand for these animal products isn't just in the best interests of vegans by any means.

So our friends aim to achieve the goal of vegan cheese by profiling the type of proteins found in animal based cheeses, and mimicking this in the baker's yeast. While this may sound like a simple case of copying and pasting DNA from one organism into another, there is a lot of energy that goes into the designing this project. Things such as immune reactions to milk need to be considered when selecting for the right protein variant, how fast a Ribosome can translate mRNA into protein to allow for proper folding of the protein, even the codon usage for genes needs to be considered as different species have different codon tRNA pairings. Another way to think of this is that the characters you're reading right now are being pronounced in your head in English. What if you spoke French and knew no English and tried to pronounce these words in French? There may be some similarities but in large it would sound pretty crazy. In essence, these cattle milk genes have been retrofitted to be able to be read and work inside of yeast cells to create the right kind of cheese proteins.

But wait cheese comes from milk not just cheese proteins right?
In order to keep this vegan cheese REAL vegan cheese, a milk substitute had to be created. This was created by concocting a blend of vegetable butter, vegan friendly sugar, and then finally the yeast cheese proteins and some good ol Dihydrogen Monoxide (water). Finally using the same cheese making processes for making non vegan cheese, they hope to create various types of cheeses from this finished product! Now all can enjoy cheese, and that's Gouda for everyone.

Biohacking Down Under # 1

Hi guys! I just had my first biohacking session and it was awesome!

So why Biohacking?

Well firstly, what is biohacking? There are many different types of biohacking. One form people follow is that of modifying the body. Making modifications includes inserting RFID chips in their hands to act as business cards. This is also known as transhumanism. Others try to “hack” the metabolic processes of their body by following strict diets to yield results such as more energy. All of these movements follow a DIY or “Do It Yourself” ethic.

Which movement of biohacking am I embarking following? The third one, and by large the most popular (I’m a sucker for bandwagons). Here in Melbourne Australia, the stage has been set for members of the public to follow and get involved in more non-institutional trends in science education. Such as the establishment of community ran laboratories. Why? Curiosity, Humans are curious, very curious. Curiosity combined with imagination can lead to some innovative discoveries. While curiosity leads to amazing things, it has also led to frightening things. One of the largest and most important values displayed by the biohacker community is transparency. Biohackers in the scene are working alongside industry professionals, government officials, and academia to make sure their projects are not only fun and interesting, but adhering to all safety standards as much as possible.

So what would having a local biohacker space look like? Well imagine having a membership to your local lab, and being able to make plants glow, bacteria change color when they come in contact with different chemicals, or getting involved with a project that could have a huge impact like finding a replacement to palm oil and more! 

So where are we right now? Well we have a little bit of traction (check our our vice article), we’ve had some equipment donated, the community is growing, we’ve had meetups, a workshop and finally, a space that we are going to be converting into our very own lab! With the support of friends, family, biohackers here in Melbourne, Sydney at the BioFoundry, and internationally, we hope to bring that satisfaction to your curiosity only science and your imagination can provide.

 Stay tuned and you can join me on the process of what’s been involved so far and what’s up ahead!

Watch as this space turns into Melbourne's first BioHacker space!