Difference between revisions of "Real Vegan Cheese"

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This is a project 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].


The main challenges include:
The main challenges include:


* 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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* Funding and spreading the word
* Funding and spreading the word
** We're planning an indiegogo crowdfunding campaign and reaching out to local media
** 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
* Patents
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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 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 West Oakland 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
*Become an active participant by joining a [https://wiki.realvegancheese.org/index.php/Working_Groups Working Group]
*Add to this wiki.
*Add to this wiki.


= Project pages =
= Project topics =
 
*[[Science]]
**[[Molecular biology]]
**[[Microbiology]]
**[[Cloning strategy]]
**[[gBlock design]]
**[[Yeast Transformation]]
**[[Protein Expression in Yeast]]
**[[Plasmid design]]
**[[Bacterial cultures]]
**[[Educational Videos]]
*[[Narwhal Cheese]]!
*[[Experiments started January 2016]]
*[[Shared Laboratory Notebook]]
*[[Shared Laboratory Notebook]]
*[[How to take notes and record data]]
*[[How to take notes and record data]]
*[[Questions and answers]]
*[[Questions and answers]]
*[[Molecular biology]]
*[[Microbiology]]
*[[Cloning strategy]]
*[[gBlock design]]
*[[Yeast Transformation]]
*[[Protein Expression in Yeast]]
*[[Plasmid design]]
*[[Cheese making]]
*[[Cheese making]]
*[[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]]
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*[[Video]] - Video and audio documentation, teleconferencing and live-streaming
*[[Video]] - Video and audio documentation, teleconferencing and live-streaming
*[[Finances]] - Incoming monies, purchases, etc.
*[[Finances]] - Incoming monies, purchases, etc.
 
*[[Media]] - Articles written about us
= Shared files =
*[[Similar projects]] - Other people doing similar stuff
 
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 =
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 10/13/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 10/06/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 9/29/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 9/15/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 9/8/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 9/1/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 8/25/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 8/18/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 8/11/14]]
*[[iGEM cloning team meeting notes 8/05/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 8/4/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 7/28/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 7/20/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 7/14/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 7/7/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 6/30/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 6/25/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 6/23/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 6/18/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 6/16/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 6/9/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 6/2/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 5/26/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 5/19/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 5/12/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 5/06/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 4/28/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 4/21/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 3/31/14]]
*[[iGEM team meeting notes 3/24/14]]

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