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!

Part 2 A cup of failures is worth more than a drop of success

Failing is winning

(Art credit- D* Face)

Were taught how "bad" failure is during our most important years of development that may have the longest lasting emotional footprint. This isn't our own fault.  Our upbringing caused a nasty taste to be associated with the word failure when spoken out loud.  Like a finger is being pointed at someone, and that person should be ashamed.

  This is so frustrating to me.  Failure has to be embraced, like a warm body on a cold night!  Well maybe not that tight....or personal.  If we ever want to go anywhere, we need to not only be willing to make mistakes (see my post on fear here), but willing to accept that we made one, learn from it, and move on.  

 Failure, what the hell is it?

Its horrible, its red, it ruins your self worth, makes your mom and dad really pissed off, can taste burnt, could cost you an aquarium and end up getting flushed down the toilet, causes people to laugh at you, causes you to laugh at others and more....no those are negatives that we pick up on.  Isn't it weird how you always remember the bad stuff? I remember the people that have wronged me or hated me the most...what a waste of emotion!  Ultimately it falls under two categories. 

1. Those who fail because they're too afraid to try (if you're afraid to try as we learned from part 1, you should be trying more!)
2. Those who crash and burn because their attempts didn't work. (this one is the right one).

The failure we want MORE of in life, the symptom of trying, its our goal, and there is no better pursuit.


when People are trying more, they're taking chances and making it happen.  Sure they might fail....wait...thats great!  No one succeeds without trying.  

Fear of failure is preventing yourself from even trying.  

"oh no im not afraid of failing, i'm just waiting until i have a better understanding of ...." "it wasn't the right moment…" 

 screw that!  


"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. " -Theadore Roosevelt


Every second you tell yourself that you're not ready yet, its another lesson lost, and another success put on hold.  Trying to be successful without failing is like trying to distinguish dark from light by only knowing one.  

Failure is without a doubt our biggest teacher, mentor, and Sifou out there.  It adds to our life experiences, it helps distinguish us. 

We need to be trying more, and more and more.  Ask a successful business man about what they did right, and they may or may not be able to tell you what they did.  Could have been luck.


  Ask him about his failures and he can tell you what went wrong, why, and what he learned.  You can, and will, learn more from failures than you can from success.  instead of trying to figure out the perfect way of doing something, just do it!  Try it.  Like a friend told me there are good ideas and good stories.  If its not one it'll be the other.

How to fail better

One of the biggest backlashes we feel as a result from failure is that…well…it didn't go the way we expected.  Thats the cause for the anger and frustration we see on the roads.  You get cut off by some d**chebag on your way to work and you react, "how could they?! heathens!!!" The philosopher, Seneca, had much to say on how we get frustrated when things don't go the way we plan. 

The recommended way of dealing with this is to consider your decisions an experiment
…they may or may not go the way you expect, but make sure you pay attention to the result.  Even if isn't what you wanted to see, its what is there, and its there for a reason.  So at the very least, to make damn sure you don't make the same mistake twice, make sure to pay attention to your mistakes.  

Some times, as stated, failures can lead to results we didn't expect.  That doesn't mean we need to throw away what we've done.  Often these results can contain the lesson...or in fact be the answer to a completely different question.



Start projects
http://www.instructables.com/

Learn a new skill
http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/24-invaluable-skills-to-learn-for-free-online-this-year

A new language! 
https://www.duolingo.com/

(follow me on duolingo AndrewGd2)


 If it makes you uncomfortable, then do it.  That uncomfortable, tightness where you're throat is? nervousness?  That is your target! Once you lock in on that, start taking steps forward, you're breaking down barriers man!  You will achieve new heights, gain new perspectives, new friendships, understand more about yourself.  And if you give up, don't feel bad we all do at some point, just start again!

 Start a business, project, blog, fail at blogging ;) anything.



-Andrew