Freeze that and you've got yourself some yeast-creme ... that sounds so good.

Some of the proteins in milk, depending upon the variety of cow, may be more or less digestable for humans. So, I wonder if they take that into consideration in developing yeasts?

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't the bacteria found in milk a considerable part of how we digest and use milk? Obviously it is possible to have contaminated milk that causes things like listeria poisoning but given a healthy milk source I'm pretty sure the bacteria is a good thing in milk. Yogurt is bacteria in milk as is cheese. It's all well and good to have a long shelf life but that benefit drops off if the product isn't capable of imparting nutrition. But then maybe, as David Rochlin above mentions, the yeast could produce a more digestible or "pre-digested" form of milk that is more useful to humans? (as there is some argument that cow milk is not optimal for human digestion) Certainly fascinating work and well worth watching.

lots of money is pouring into sythetic biologically engineered replacement systems for animal proteins, specifially milk and eggs.
as scary as this sounds to people, there is a distinct posssibility that within the next 100 years these efforts succeed in making a replacement that is palate-able to people. after all , people drink soymilk, which kind of suck compared to real milk.
if a truly succesful milk and eggs replacement were to be invented, think of all the cows , chickens, acreage, and labor that would be made obsolete and unnecessary.
i'm not a vegetarian or campaigner for animal rights, i'm just saying a whole lot of sweat blood and tears goes into making our eggs and milk, and if that requirement could be dramatically reduced to get us those staple foods in a quick and competitive manner-----well that would be part of a major agricultural revolution that would improve the lives of human beings and livestock and poultry. it's a win win. to boot---vast tracts of acreage reserved for cows and to far lesser extent poultry, would be freed up for any human or for nature to reclaim for other purposes.

Very interesting. I wish Gizmag would publish more news from the biotech area. (Maybe even devote an entire section to it) There are fantastic things happening in this area and I want to read it here first. I am little bored of reading that a processor is now running at 1.6 GHz instead of 1.2 GHz and the display has become larger or smaller.

Hmm, bioengineered GMO yeast. 1) there need to be long term (ie much longer than 5 years) studies of both the product and the survivability of the yeast in the natural environment along with it's impact on natural microbial populations and 2) I think I'll pass on any GMO products!

How can it taste better than real milk? Could they produce eggs that taste better than eggs?
Maybe someone could make an entirely new type of food, with all the best features of taste, texture, and nutrition, rather than copying existing foods. I don't mean GMO, which most people find scary.

We call the dairy farm next door "Cow Torture Farm". Its not one of those hi-tech places, just an everyday milk producer. The yard is permanently ankle deep cow slurry and the white dog always looks like one of those two-tone chocolates, white on top brown underneath. The cows are so overbred for milk production they can barely walk when their udders are full. Each year they are artificially inseminated and have to go through a pregnancy and produce a calf in order to lactate. The farmer shoots the male calves and throws them in a heap, which dogs and badgers steal bits from. When disease breaks out the farmer blames the badgers and demands compensation from the government. If bio-milk gets rid of this kind of farming, then it will be a good thing.

how about artificial skim milk with no fat added? It ought to be cheaper. I cant believe it tastes the same as regular milk.

Could do similar with altering natural Kefir?