Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have found a way to un-boil eggs. The new technique is a combination of a new substance and mixing strategy. According to the researchers, the new way could be helpful in treatment of diseases like cancer.

Gregory Weiss, a chemistry professor at the University of California, said during the study they pulled apart tangled proteins and allowed them to refold. The researchers had boiled egg white for about 20 minutes at a temperature of about 90 degrees Celsius. They then return a key protein in the egg.

Egg’s molecular proteins have been used in science and industry. During processing, those protein structures become tangled and unusable, like they do when they are boiled. To make egg to return to their original structure, the researchers added a urea substance to the egg whites. It changed the solids back into liquid. They then use a vortex fluid device to disentangle stuck-together protein strands.

Weiss said, “The real problem is there are lots of cases of gummy proteins that you spend way too much time scraping off your test tubes, and you want some means of recovering that material”.

Where older methods take about four days to recover the material, the new technique takes just a few minutes, said Weiss.