Bay Area biohackers are trying to figure out how to make cheese without involving cows or other animal moms. A joint team from Counter Culture Labs and BioCurious is planning to make Vegan cheese by “milking” modified yeast cells, microscopic fungi. They’ve crowd-sourced $26K, almost double what they asked for. Obviously, Vegans really miss pizza.
“Wait!” you say, “Generically Modified cheese?” No, the baker’s yeast will be modified but the milk proteins will be separated out.
But it takes 6 to 10 pounds of animal milk to make a pound of cheese. We wonder if there could ever be enough yeast milk in the world to produce an economically viable volume of these laboratory Vegan cheeses. If it can be done, potential customers include Vegans, the lactose-intolerant, and observant Jews (Kosher cheeseburgers, anyone?).
More:
“Lab-Grown Cheese Made By ‘Milking’ Genetically Modified Yeast Cells,” Jason Dorner, Singularity Hub
“Biohackers Are Trying to Modify Yeast to Make Vegan Cheese That Doesn’t Suck,” Jason Koebler, Motherboard
“Real Cheese From A Lab, No Cow Necessary,” Sarah Buhr, TechCrunch
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Cheese photo of a Sona Creamery sign) photo by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Tags: bioengineering, biohackers, cheese, Vegan Cheese, Vegans, yeast
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