Real Vegan Cheese (RVC) is a grassroots, non-profit research project working to produce real cheese using cellular agriculture. We add the genes for cheese proteins to yeast and other microflora, and turn them into little protein factories, then make real cheese by adding plant-based fats and sugars. Real Vegan Cheese is not a cheese substitute -- the cheesemaking process is just like using cow or goat milk! We are dedicated to Open Science and making sure the results of our research are available to the global community to enable a sustainable animal-free dairy industry.
What is Cheese?
Cheese consists of four main milk proteins, called caseins: Alpha-S1, Alpha-S2, Beta and Kappa casein. Milk contains several other proteins, but those wind up in the whey during the cheesemaking process. All four casein protein are somewhat hydrophobic so in milk they cluster together in small spherical blobs called casein micelles. Kappa casein has a hydrophilic (water loving) tail end, so these casein micelles wind up covered with kappa casein, with the hydrophilic tails sticking out, which makes the micelles stable in milk. The casein micelles in milk scatter the light and are responsible for the white color of milk. During cheesemaking, we use acids to collapse those hydrophilic tails, or enzymes such as rennet to cut them off. This causes the micelles to come out of suspension and stick together, forming cheese curds.
The coagulating casein micelles also trap a lot of the fat globules floating around in whole milk, as well as some of the lactose. And the casein proteins themselves also bind a lot of Calcium and Phosphate.
Making cheese without cows
The four main ingredients of cheese are water, milkfat, cheese protein (casein) and sugar (lactose). There are vegan sources for water, (vegan) milkfat, and sugar. That just leaves casein! (At least, that’s the idea…). If we can produce casein proteins in another organism like yeast, we should be able to construct a cheese which is virtually identical to cow’s cheese, but without any animal suffering and a lot fewer greenhouse gas emissions!
So that is the main goal for our project: Make casein proteins without cows; put those caseins together into casein micelles; make real cheese from those micelles.
Where are we currently?
Making casein proteins
We have been able to express all four casein proteins in E. coli - see here for a more detailed technical update. However we lost some critical mass for the wetlab component of the project, and we are looking for someone who can help us restart this work, either at BioCurious in Santa Clara, or at Counter Culture Labs in Oakland.
Our immediate next steps would be to retrieve the plasmids from the -80 freezer, transform them into E. coli, and store glycerol stock of the E. coli strains in the -80. Then we’ll do some expression and purification runs, and measure yield for each. We are also working on designing a new set of plasmids to express the casein proteins in yeast.
Subprojects
Casein Protein Production
We take the genes for cheese proteins (caseins) and use synthetic biology to add them to yeast and other microflora, which then produce the casein proteins. We then brew up a large batch of these engineered microflora in a bioreactor, and purify the casein proteins.
Making Animal-Free Cheese from Recombinant Casein
After producing the casein proteins, now it is time to make cheese! First we need to combine the purified caseins into micelles - the tiny protein spheres that make milk white. We are also researching plant-based fats and sugars to replace the butterfat and lactose in traditional cheese. From there, we should be able to make any type of cheese we want using traditional cheesemaking techniques -- with some tweaks.
Cheese Ripening and Flavor
In the aging process, diverse bacterial strains break down sugars, proteins and fat in fresh cheese into a complex molecular profile. This helps intensify the flavor and develop unique textures. We’re researching the molecular mechanisms behind this process and the strains needed to better understand how to create your favorite aged cheeses.
All the differences in flavor between a bland cottage cheese and a sharp cheddar are due to microbial action, so we have a natural interest in cheese ripening bacteria as well. In particular, if we use plant-based fats and sugars instead of butter fat and lactose, we will make sure that those ripening bacteria will produce the same flavor and aroma profiles that we expect in cheese.
Community Engagement
We’ve helped pave the way for international community-based research efforts, hosting and presenting at events around the globe. We also want to engage the public to discuss new food technologies in a transparent and open way. We aim to build trust in these new methods of food production, which show promise for ethical and environmental reasons.
Advancing Open Science
Most new food science is developed under patents and brought to market using a traditional intellectual property and investment business model. RVC is investigating and developing ways to use an Open Science business model. We don’t want to see promising technology locked up with a single company - we want it to be accessible to the wide spectrum of innovators, entrepreneurs, and cheese producers to have the largest impact.
Narwhal Cheese and Evolutionary Genomics
We can make cheese from any genome sequenced mammal - how about… Narwhal whale cheese! Part whimsy, part hard-core science, this sub-project is studying topics from the evolution of the casein gene cluster and tooth development genes, to unicorn mytho-phylogenetics. This project is a great introduction to evolution, genome science, and bioinformatics. Click for more about this project
How can you contribute?
It can feel overwhelming to find a way to contribute to such a large and long running project but it is intended for anyone of any skill level to be a part of. We do not assume that everyone will join and be at the same skill/knowledge level.
Some skills that are most useful include:
Note taking
Literature search
Molecular biology
Bioinformatics
Evolutionary genomics
Social Media (Surveys, Blog Posts, Social media posts)
How do meetings run?
Our online zoom meetings are every Monday, alternating between Science and Admin sessions. During the science meetings we cover a specific science topic related to the project or go over recent science of the project. Admin meetings are where we determine the science topics and do some basic discussion of non science topics from blogs to the backend running of the project. If you have non science questions then Admin weeks are the perfect time to ask questions.
In-person lab sessions at Counter Culture Labs or BioCurious are scheduled whenever we can get some folks willing to lead a session - stay tuned!
Join us next Monday…
You can join us every Monday at 7pm PDT. Sign up though Meetup.com at either of the following:
How can you learn more?
We have a wiki at https://wiki.realvegancheese.org/wiki/Real_Vegan_Cheese. It includes an introductory textbook that should give you a solid introduction to what’s going on.
You can also browse our FAQ.