Researchers at the University of California Irvine (UCI) along with colleagues in Australia have found a way to "unboil" egg whites and inexpensively restore the proteins in the egg to their original state.

The method could help cut costs for cancer treatments and speed up other biotechnology research related to proteins. It also has a great impact on the biotechnology industry.

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"Yes, we have invented a way to unboil a hen egg. In our paper, we describe a device for pulling apart tangled proteins and allowing them to refold. We start with egg whites boiled for 20 minutes at 90 degrees Celsius and return a key protein in the egg to working order," said Gregory Weiss, UCI professor of chemistry and molecular biology & biochemistry in a statement.

Researchers boiled the eggs for 20 minutes at 194 degrees Fahrenheit and then added urea, (a chemical compound found in urine) to the eggs to liquefy them. Once the material is re-liquified the proteins are still congealed into an unusable mass.

Researchers then used a "vortex fluid device" on the liquid egg whites to get these tangled proteins to return to their proper form.

The device was designed Professor Colin Rastin and his associates at Flinders University in South Australia.

"The new process takes minutes. It speeds things up by a factor of thousands," Weiss added.

Scientists said the new study could also extremely cut costs for biotechnology processes that involve forcing proteins back into their original state.

Details of the new research can be found in the journal, ChemBioChem.

Tagsunbolied egg, egg, Cancer treatment, biotechnology industry, egg white, Protein