‘Real’ Vegan Cheese Is Coming Soon, Thanks to These Biohackers. No Cows Needed!

Whoa! Biohackers from San Francisco are banding together in an attempt to make the world’s first “real vegan cheese!”  The group is “engineering regular baker’s yeast to produce the world’s first real vegan cheese protein, and, from there, the world’s first Real Vegan Cheese!”

What is “real vegan cheese,” you ask? According to the group’s  Indiegogo page, where they have almost met their $15,000 to fund this project, “Real Vegan Cheese is a not a cheese substitute! It all begins with regular old baker’s yeast. Through synthetic biology, we engineer our yeast to become milk-protein factories, churning out real milk proteins (known as caseins). These milk proteins are then combined with water, vegan sugar and oil to make a kind of milk which is ultimately converted into Real Vegan Cheese using the age-old cheese-making process.” Here’s a biohacker at work on the process:

It really will be vegan, the group assures us: “Our genes are made from scratch to work in yeast, and though they are inspired by mammals, none of the genes, organisms or growth mediums we use have ever been part of an animal.”

And they claim it won’t be GMO, either: “While we genetically modify yeast, the yeast itself is not eaten, and the resulting milk-protein is separated from the GMOs before being turned into cheese.”

You can check out the video for more on the process and the group’s rationale and goals. What do you think? Will you try this new vegan cheese?

Lead image source: Real Vegan Cheese