Vegans are going to be super-conflicted by this one. Researchers at Beijing University’s College of Life Science and Technology are pioneering a four-legged creature friendly method for cranking out the 300,000 hundreds gelatin produced annually. Their solution: people. Well, not within the Soylent Green sense. No, the method in question here takes “human gelatin genes [and inserts them] right into a strain of yeast [producing] gelatin with controllable features.” Sound appetizing? It might probably, so that it will avoid chowing down on “Mad Cow” tainted gummy worms on the cinema. Alright, so maybe these Chinese scientists are signaling the sensationalist red alert a piece prematurely — it’s simply too bad Charlton Heston isn’t around to witness this little bit of life science imitating his art.
[Image credit via Film Critic ]
“New Strategy for Expression of Recombinant Hydroxylated Human-Derived Gelatin in Pichia pastoris KM71″
Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry
Scientists are reporting development of a brand new approach for producing large quantities of human-derived gelatin which may become an alternative choice to one of the 300,000 a lot of animal-based gelatin produced annually for gelatin-type desserts, marshmallows, candy and innumerable other products. Their study appears in ACS’s Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.
Jinchun Chen and co-workers explain that animal-based gelatin, that is made most likely from the bones and skin of cows and pigs, may carry a risk of infectious diseases reminiscent of “Mad Cow” disease and will provoke immune system responses in some people. Animal-based gelatin has other draw-backs, with variability from batch to batch, for example, creating difficulties for manufacturers. Scientists thus have sought alternatives, including development of a human-recombinant gelatin for potential use in drug capsules and other medical applications.
To get around these difficulties, the scientists developed and demonstrated a technique where human gelatin genes are inserted right into a strain of yeast, that may produce gelatin with controllable features. The researchers are still testing the human-yeast gelatin to work out how well it compares to other gelatins with regards to its viscosity and other attributes. Chen and co-workers suggest that their method may well be scaled as much as produce quite a lot of gelatin for commercial use.
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