Difference between revisions of "Real Vegan Cheese"

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* Biology
* Biology
** Getting the major casein-proteins secreted.
** 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 a suitable milk-fat replacement.
** Finding a suitable lactose replacement
** Finding a suitable lactose replacement


* Ethical and environmental impact studies
* [[Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications]]
** A comparison between yeast bioreactors and dairy cows will be essential
** A comparison between yeast bioreactors and dairy cows will be essential
** [[Life Cycle Analyses]]


* Safety
* Safety
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= 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:
*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/counter-culture-labs/events/calendar/ Counter Culture Labs Meetup calendar]
**[https://www.meetup.com/biocurious/events/calendar/ BioCurious Meetup calendar]
**[https://www.meetup.com/biocurious/events/calendar/ BioCurious Meetup calendar]
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*Add to this wiki.
*Add to this wiki.


= Project pages =
= Project topics =
*[[Science]]
*[[Science]]
**[[Molecular biology]]
**[[Molecular biology]]
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**[[Bacterial cultures]]
**[[Bacterial cultures]]
**[[Educational Videos]]
**[[Educational Videos]]
*[[Narwhal]]
*[[Narwhal Cheese]]!
*[[Experiments started January 2016]]
*[[Experiments started January 2016]]
*[[Shared Laboratory Notebook]]
*[[Shared Laboratory Notebook]]
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*[[Existing vegan cheeses]]
*[[Existing vegan cheeses]]
*[[Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications]]
*[[Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications]]
*[[Health effects and cancer link]]
*[[Health effects: allergy and cancer link]]
*[[Product viability]]
*[[Product viability]]
*[[Budget, planning and orders]]
*[[Budget, planning and orders]]

Revision as of 02:54, 23 May 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. Watch a brief video about the project.

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.
  • 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.

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:

Project topics