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BioBeer: This Bud's for Cancer

Brewski to combat cancer, heart disease

By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 23, 2008 2:59 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Imagine a beer that can prevent cancer and heart disease—even stave off aging. Researchers at Rice University are attempting to craft just such a concoction, reports Computerworld, using a genetically modified strain of yeast that produces resveratrol, the same disease-busting compound found in red wine. The team hopes to bottle a brew that packs a consistently stronger resveratrol punch than wine.

“The amount of red wine you'd need to drink to is about half a bottle a day" to get any health benefit, said one researcher, who says he's “fairly confident” the Rice experiment will work. It could be at least five years before so-called BioBeer hits the shelves. Meanwhile, the team is working with a local brewery on another important hurdle: taste.

Barrels of beer in a refrigerated trailer. Researchers are developing a beer made from a yeast genetically engineered to produce a substance that can fight cancer and heart disease.
Barrels of beer in a refrigerated trailer. Researchers are developing a beer made from a yeast genetically engineered to produce a substance that can fight cancer and heart disease.   (AP Photo/Keystone, Gaetan Bally)
Researchers are developing a beer made from a yeast genetically engineered to produce a substance that can fight cancer and heart disease.
Researchers are developing a beer made from a yeast genetically engineered to produce a substance that can fight cancer and heart disease.   (©secretlondon123)
Researchers are developing a beer made from a yeast genetically engineered to produce a substance that can fight cancer and heart disease.
Researchers are developing a beer made from a yeast genetically engineered to produce a substance that can fight cancer and heart disease.   (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
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Beer could become the new red wine
Wired

Cheers to BioBeer
iTWire

 
cancer • heart disease • beer • red wine • resveratrol • yeast • Rice University

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