Not so hard: Scientists find way to unboil egg, could aid in cancer treatment

Researchers have managed to unboil an ordinary boiled egg, and the results may have implications for cancer treatments, biotechnology and a broad range of food production processes, a British daily reported Tuesday. A hard-boiled egg white represents proteins that have been cooked, tangled up and – so it was thought – irreversibly changed. But the scientists were able to force the proteins apart into their untangled and reusable form. They added a urea substance to break down the cooked egg and then applied a high-powered machine called a “vortex fluid device” to achieve the result, the daily said.

Yes, we have invented a way to unboil a hen egg.

Gregory Weiss, University of California professor of chemistry, molecular biology and biochemistry

Having an effective and quick method for reusing wasted proteins could revolutionize a vast range of scientific and manufacturing processes. For instance, cancer antibody creation is done using expensive hamster ovary cells as they rarely waste proteins. Thus, using the new process could make cancer research and treatments cheaper. The study was funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences in the US and the Australian Research Council, and published last week in the journal ChemBioChem.

It’s not so much that we’re interested in processing the eggs; that’s just demonstrating how powerful this process is.

Gregory Weiss

Science unboil