Dream brew--Beer that fights cancer, heart disease

Houston Chronicle:

Forget dashing to Spec's for a six-pack. Head instead to a science lab at Rice University.

On second thought, maybe you shouldn't. The brew in the second-floor lab in Keck Hall isn't exactly ready for prime time.

Unless, that is, you're interested in bits of DNA, genetic sequencing and scientific breakthroughs, with the ultimate goal of creating a beer that might fight cancer, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

It started, as so many great ideas do, as a joke.

"But then we found that we'd be able to do it," said Thomas Segall-Shapiro, 20, a junior biochemistry and bioengineering major at Rice. "That's when we got sold on the idea."

BioBeer — a more consumer-friendly name than the original Frankenbeer moniker — will be brewed using yeast genetically modified to produce resveratrol.

Resveratrol, a naturally occurring compound found in red wine and a few other foods, has been shown to have cancer-fighting and cardiovascular benefits, at least in mice.

"We're all about spreading the health," joked Rice junior Taylor Stevenson, another member of the team.

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This beer sounds like the original Coke which was sold as a cure all. Now if they could make one that would make you actually lose weight rather than gain weight they would have a real marketing item. Now beer drinkers can say they drink "for medicinal purposes only."