Scientists May Have Found A Way To Make Wine That Won't Give You A Hangover

Wine already soothes your soul, but what if it could do the same for your hangover?

A research team from the University of Illinois led by Professor Yong-Su Jin has discovered a way to potentially hack into the multi-strand yeast that makes up fermented products like wine and kimchee.

According to the Daily Mail, these scientists claim they have discovered the key to making hangover-free wine, by altering the DNA of yeast in the drink.

In a press release, Professor Jin explains his team has developed a “genome knife,” capable of cutting out certain pieces of DNA to modify the yeast used in fermentation.

Jin explained the process, saying,

Say we have a yeast that produces a wine with great flavour and we want to know why. We delete one gene, then another, until the distinctive flavor is gone, and we know we have isolated the gene responsible for that characteristic.

Jin also notes that his tool might be able to exponentially increase the benefits of food. He mentions the compound resveratrol, popularly considered to have cardiovascular benefits, that's found in wine.

He adds in the press release,

With engineered yeast, we could increase the amount of resveratrol in a variety of wine by 10 times or more... We could put resveratrol-producing pathways into yeast strains used for beer, kefir, cheese, kimchee, or pickles — any food that uses yeast fermentation in its production.

Before you get too excited, however, remember that Jin's research is still new. There's a long way to go before you'll be able to pick up a hangover-free bottle of cabernet at your local liquor store.