Lab-grown 'real' cheese made without milk

Real vegan cheese. An oxymoron, but maybe not for long. A group of biohackers, which is a thing now, reckon they can make cheese without milk. Better still, it apparently tastes like proper, legitimate cheese, and not some vegan-friendly substitute mess. The SF-based iGEM group say it's made from baker's yeast. The team is able to make cheese proteins using genetic sequences found in mammals, inserting the DNA blueprints into the aforementioned yeast, and it's all vegan-compatible because it doesn't need animal products to make the proteins.

Weirder (or creepier depending on how you view it) some of the DNA strands in some of their cheeses come from humans. The thinking there is that milk proteins made from our own species could offer reduced allergic reactions. But like synthetic meat before it, real fake food is still expensive to make: the group's Indiegogo fundraiser has amassed over $15,000 and still has a month to go. Four different yeast variants are planned, while the team also promises to collect all their research into a public wiki. As with nearly everything delicious in life, it'll need FDA approval before it can line shelves alongside real real cheese.