Difference between revisions of "Real Vegan Cheese"

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The goal of this project is to make real vegan cheese by engineering normal baker's yeast (S. cerevisiae) to express milk protein (casein), purifying the protein, creating a milk-substitute by blending in vegan replacements for lactose and milkfat, and finally turning the resulting milk-substitute into semi-hard cheese like gouda using the normal cheese-making process. Watch a [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/real-vegan-cheese/ brief video about the project].
The goal of this project is to make real vegan cheese by engineering normal baker's yeast (S. cerevisiae) to express milk protein (casein), purifying the protein, creating a milk-substitute by blending in vegan replacements for lactose and milkfat, and finally turning the resulting milk-substitute into semi-hard cheese like gouda using the normal cheese-making process.  
* Watch a [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/real-vegan-cheese/ brief video about the project].
* Check out our website at [https://www.realvegancheese.org/ realvegancheese.org].
* Read our [https://www.realvegancheese.org/news Blog Posts] about this project.


The main challenges include:
The main challenges include:


* Biology
* Biology
** Getting the major casein-proteins secreted.
** Find all the nitty-gritty on how we engineer our host organism to produce cheese proteins in our pages on [[molecular biology]], [[cloning strategy]], [[gBlock design]], [[plasmid design]], [[Yeast Transformation]].
** Getting the major [[Molecular_biology#Proteins|casein proteins]] expressed, and ideally secreted.
** Achieving a high level of expression.
** Achieving a high level of expression.
** Ensuring the required post-translational modifications take place.
** Ensuring any necessary [[Molecular_biology#Post-translational_modification|post-translational modifications]] take place.
** Cost-efficient protein purification.
** Cost-efficient [[protein purification]].
** Stable micelle-formation.
** [[Molecular_biology#Role_of_phosphorylation_and_glycosylation_in_micelle_formation_or_coagulation |Stable micelle-formation.]]
** Finding a suitable milk-fat replacement.
** Finding suitable [[alternative fats]].
** Finding a suitable lactose replacement
** Finding suitable [[alternative sugars]].
** Can we achieve the same flavor and aroma profile using the traditional cheese ripening [[bacterial cultures]]?


* Ethical and environmental impact studies
* [[Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications]]
** A comparison between yeast bioreactors and dairy cows will be essential
** Can we produce this cheese in a way that is (a) better for the environment, and (b) economically feasible? Check our page on [[Life Cycle Assessments and Techno-Economic Analyses]]


* Safety
* Safety
** Ensuring a safe and responsible research environment is already a key goal of CCL and BioC, but we will have to field potential safety concerns specifically related to the Real Vegan Cheese project.
** Ensuring a safe and responsible research environment is already a key goal of CCL and BioC, but we will have to field potential safety concerns specifically related to the Real Vegan Cheese project.
** Check out the [https://www.genspace.org/community-biology-biosafety-handbook Community Biology Safety Handbook], edited with help from some of our members.


* Funding and spreading the word
* Funding and spreading the word
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* Education
* Education
** Providing hands-on lab training.
** Providing hands-on lab training.
** Check out our [[Educational Videos]] about many parts of the process!


= Getting involved =
= Getting involved =
[https://www.realvegancheese.org/news/so-you-want-to-join-the-real-vegan-cheese-project-orientation-for-new-folks '''So, you want to join the Real Vegan Cheese project? - Orientation for new folks'''] - September 2022 blog post.


Here are some different ways to get involved:
Here are some different ways to get involved:


*Go to one of our Monday evening working meetings 7pm PST:
**[https://www.meetup.com/counter-culture-labs/events/calendar/ Counter Culture Labs Meetup calendar]
**[https://www.meetup.com/biocurious/events/calendar/ BioCurious Meetup calendar]
*Read our [[Introductory textbook|Introductory mini-textbook]] (work in progress)
*Read our [[Introductory textbook|Introductory mini-textbook]] (work in progress)
*Get on one or more of our [[mailing lists]]
*Get on one or more of our [[mailing lists]]
*Go to one of our [https://counterculturelabs.org/?page_id=105 Monday evening working meetings] (either in Oakland (Omni Commons) or South Bay depending on the week).
*[https://realvegancheese.org/contribute/ Help fund the project]
*[https://realvegancheese.org/contribute/ Help fund the project]
*Send us an email at info@counterculturelabs.org
*Send us an email at info@counterculturelabs.org
*Add to this wiki.
*Add to this wiki.


= Project pages =
= More links to incorporate =
 
*[[Science]]
*[[Experiments started January 2016]]
**[[Microbiology]]
*[[Shared Laboratory Notebook]]
**[[Protein Expression in Yeast]]
*[[How to take notes and record data]]
*[[Bureaucracy]]
*[[Questions and answers]]
*[[Molecular biology]]
*[[Microbiology]]
*[[Cloning strategy]]
*[[gBlock design]]
*[[Yeast Transformation]]
*[[Protein Expression in Yeast]]
*[[Plasmid design]]
*[[Cheese making]]
*[[Cheese making]]
*[[Bacterial cultures]]
*[[Existing vegan cheeses]]
*[[Existing vegan cheeses]]
*[[Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications]]
*[[Experiments started January 2016]]
*[[Health effects and cancer link]]
*[[Product viability]]
*[[Budget, planning and orders]]
*[[Wetware inventory]]
*[[Software]]
*[[External communications]]
*[[External communications]]
*[[Service and reagent providers]] - Sequencing, synthesis, enzymes, etc.
*[[Bureaucracy]]
*[[Video]] - Video and audio documentation, teleconferencing and live-streaming
*[[Finances]] - Incoming monies, purchases, etc.
*[[Finances]] - Incoming monies, purchases, etc.
*[[Health effects: allergy and cancer link]]
*[[How to take notes and record data]]
*[[Media]] - Articles written about us
*[[Media]] - Articles written about us
*[[Product viability]]
*[[Narwhal Cheese]]!
*[[Questions and answers]]
*[[Service and reagent providers]] - Sequencing, synthesis, enzymes, etc.
*[[Shared Laboratory Notebook]]
*[[Similar projects]] - Other people doing similar stuff
*[[Similar projects]] - Other people doing similar stuff
 
*[[Software]]
= Shared files =
*[[Video]] - Video and audio documentation, teleconferencing and live-streaming
 
We use [http://seafile.com/ Seafile] to share files. You can use the web interface to access our public files here:
 
*[https://files.counterculturelabs.org/d/2b8d0fe3d6/ download]
*[https://files.counterculturelabs.org/u/d/e7fc041927/ upload]
 
Unfortunately many of our files are not public since most of the relevant scientific articles use closed licenses that don't allow us to share them publicly.
 
If you want to collaborate on this project and get access to our private files, you probably want to [http://seafile.com/en/download/ install the Seafile app] (get version 2.1.x) and request an account from info@counterculturelabs.org.
 
'''NOTE''': When connecting with the seafile software, you need to specify https://files.counterculturelabs.org/ as the server.
 
= Mailing list =
 
The iGEM team has a mailing list but we're waiting for the admin to mark it as public so we can link it here.
 
= Meeting Notes =
 
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x1mXVCS6qUIXwhasYnC9zGmOoD3ejyYSn9aC1531x84/edit# Meeting Notes]
 
For older meeting notes, click [[here]]

Latest revision as of 02:48, 18 July 2023

The goal of this project is to make real vegan cheese by engineering normal baker's yeast (S. cerevisiae) to express milk protein (casein), purifying the protein, creating a milk-substitute by blending in vegan replacements for lactose and milkfat, and finally turning the resulting milk-substitute into semi-hard cheese like gouda using the normal cheese-making process.

The main challenges include:

  • Safety
    • Ensuring a safe and responsible research environment is already a key goal of CCL and BioC, but we will have to field potential safety concerns specifically related to the Real Vegan Cheese project.
    • Check out the Community Biology Safety Handbook, edited with help from some of our members.
  • Funding and spreading the word
    • We have raised about $37,000 on indiegogo and the funding we raised is being used on developing the feasibility of producing Real Vegan Cheese from baker's yeast.
  • Patents
    • We plan to patent and abandon to keep this technology free for everyone
  • Education
    • Providing hands-on lab training.
    • Check out our Educational Videos about many parts of the process!

Getting involved

So, you want to join the Real Vegan Cheese project? - Orientation for new folks - September 2022 blog post.

Here are some different ways to get involved:

More links to incorporate

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