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Scientists Determine New Way To Untangle Proteins By Unboiling an Egg

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-would-like-my-eggs-undone-please dept.

An anonymous reader sends word of this biotech breakthrough. "Univ. of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) and Australian chemists have figured out how to unboil egg whites—an innovation that could dramatically reduce costs for cancer treatments, food production and other segments of the $160 billion global biotechnology industry, according to findings published in ChemBioChem. 'Yes, we have invented a way to unboil a hen egg,' said Gregory Weiss, UCI professor of chemistry and molecular biology & biochemistry. '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 min at 90 C and return a key protein in the egg to working order.'"

31 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Wow .... by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's pretty cool.

    Imagine, a seasoning which turned your tough steak back from being shoe leather. :-P

    Un-boiling an egg, the mind boggles.

    I wonder what wacky applications chefs will come up with for this one. I can see some of the molecular gastronomy folks doing some odd things.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:Wow .... by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Un-boiling an egg, the mind boggles.

      I read the article, and still can't figure out what they are really doing or how they are really gonna use it, seems to be a processing technique more than a production technique. Somehow I suspect the unboiled whites are not quite the same as the original.

      I guess the next step is to un-fry a chicken.

    2. Re:Wow .... by TWX · · Score: 4, Funny

      I guess the next step is to un-fry a chicken.

      There's a particular Wendy's that I won't eat at; they seem to have mastered this technique based on what I've been served between two pieces of bread.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    3. Re:Wow .... by GrumpySteen · · Score: 2

      It would be an interesting way to eat a "raw" egg without having to worry about salmonella.

      Not really that interesting since pasteurized eggs are already available for sale and relatively easy to find.

    4. Re:Wow .... by orgelspieler · · Score: 2

      Are you sure that was bread? It might have been more chicken.

    5. Re:Wow .... by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Un-boiling an egg, the mind boggles.

      Yes, but if these researchers think they're so darn smart, let's see 'em put toothpaste back into the tube...

    6. Re:Wow .... by Rei · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's a two-step process. The first is a chemical that dissolves the proteins (still in their "cooked" folding), and the second is some sort of centrifuge or similar (they don't go into details on the device in the article) that subjects the proteins to very high sheer strain, effectively mechanically unfolding them so that they can then relax back into their natural state.

      Not exactly a spice you can sprinkle onto your steak, but still pretty neat. :)

      --
      Crowd: What do we want? Fry: Fry's dog! Crowd: When do we want it? Fry: Fry's dog!
    7. Re:Wow .... by Hotawa+Hawk-eye · · Score: 3, Informative

      From what I gathered from the article, a particular cancer medication needs to be produced using expensive materials (hamster ovaries) because the proteins produced by the ovaries don't get tangled up for some reason. Producing those proteins in a less expensive material (E. coli, yeast) would lead to tangling of the proteins. If they can use the less expensive material and detangle the proteins for less than the cost of producing the proteins in the hamster ovaries, the price of the medication would (hopefully) go down and the supply would increase.

      So the next step is to un-tangle proteins produced from yeast, I guess.

    8. Re:Wow .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      At the bottom of website you posted:

      The FDA now requires that eggs must be packaged and refrigerated within 36 hours. We exceed these newest standards. This minimizes Salmonella from growing in or on the eggs. One should assume, most raw foods may have some level of bacteria and as usual we advise that all eggs be properly cooked to a temperature of 165F to ensure destruction of any Salmonella and to wash hands with soap after handling eggs. After all we do live in a world of microbes.

      Eat safely,

      Phoenix's Egg Farm

      That kinda contradicts your statement.

    9. Re:Wow .... by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sadly if you RTF[A/S] they say:

      We start with egg whites boiled for 20 min at 90 C and return a key protein in the egg to working order.

      One key protein does not make an egg.

      And we can be thankful for that! Otherwise we'd end up having brunch with some asshat who wants his eggs "unboiled three minutes, served with bearnaise sauce on the side and two slices of sour dough bread toasted to be crisp but not darkened"... and you end up wondering are they going to spit in everyone's food or just his?

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  2. Cryptography is lost by MiKom · · Score: 5, Funny

    So much for using egg scrambling as analogue to hash functions.

    1. Re:Cryptography is lost by TWX · · Score: 2

      boiling != scrambling. Your analogy is safe for now.

      Besides, like brute-force crypto, in some instances it may be possible to un-boil some aspect of the egg, but it appears to be an extremely expensive process carried out by only highly trained professionals and only workable in very specific circumstances, so it's very unlikely that it'll be commonplace in the total number of instances of boiled eggs or encrypted data.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    2. Re:Cryptography is lost by asliarun · · Score: 2

      Yeah, getting stoned from scrambled eggs sounded too good to be true.

      Especially while listening to urea heap.

  3. Hamster Ovaries by Mystakaphoros · · Score: 5, Funny

    Today I learned that cancer antibodies are often made in hamster ovaries. This may be, to date, the most I have ever thought about hamster ovaries.

    1. Re:Hamster Ovaries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      This may be, to date, the most I have ever thought about hamster ovaries.

      Your xHamster browsing history says otherwise.

  4. This is awesome by Iniamyen · · Score: 2

    This is awesome... but more importantly, can they find a way to un-break a yolk?!

  5. Unboil a hen egg? by ArcherB · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    Let me know when they can unboil a rooster egg. Now that will be something.

    --
    There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    1. Re:Unboil a hen egg? by KillAllNazis · · Score: 2

      Bloody misandry if you ask me.

  6. im sure the academic notes are riveting. by nimbius · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Lab journal: Is frank doing this on purpose? our new UC Irvine lab PhD is a fan of eggs. Eggs for brekky, eggs for lunch and tea, eggs at dinner...eggs. Normally im not one to complain about a fellow academics choice of meal but the flatulence is unbearable (worse than the 2002 methane leak and that says a lot.) After confronting him i got the usual, condescending american 'he who smelt it delt it huh buddy?' Yah, Nah. From now on im on a mission. I will un-boil his god damn eggs if its the last thing I ever do."

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:im sure the academic notes are riveting. by itzly · · Score: 3, Informative

      the flatulence is unbearable (worse than the 2002 methane leak...)

      Methane is odourless. Egg farts stink because of the hydrogen sulfide and similar compounds.

  7. Boiled at 90C? by magarity · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is their lab at the bottom of death valley or are they using a pressure cooker?
    Every time C vs F comes up, the C fans invariably point to C being vastly superior mainly because 100 C is water's boiling point.

    1. Re:Boiled at 90C? by itzly · · Score: 2

      Higher pressure increases boiling point. And while metric is superior for most things, the Celsius scale is just as arbitrary as Fahrenheit.

    2. Re:Boiled at 90C? by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 3, Insightful

      0 is the freezing point and 100 is the boiling point at normal pressure. How is that arbitrary?

      LOL. Let me help you:

      1. the freezing point (arbitrary but easily observable state)
      2. of pure water with no dissolved substances (arbitrary but common chemical compound)
      3. at sea level (arbitrary but easily located place)
      4. at normal atmospheric pressure
      5. on earth (arbitrary but very convenient location)
      6. is 0 degrees (arbitrary value which kind of makes sense until you realize that you can still get colder)
      7. and the boiling point of water at sea level on earth at normal atmospheric pressure (previous comments still apply)
      8. is 100 degrees (arbitrary number chosen for convenience of the units - "10" would be too course grained and "1000" would be too fine grained)

      So, yes, the celsius scale is arbitrary, the Fahrenheit only slightly more so. At least the celsius scale can be kind of reproduced in a pinch if you're at sea level and normal pressure and you have water and the ability to freeze and heat it. But, then, if you have all that you can reproduce the Fahrenheit scale, too.

      For an idea of a less arbitrary scale look at the Kelvin scale. On it, "0" is the absolute lowest temperature where matter has absolutely no heat content. Of course the scale is the same as celsius so it still ends up being arbitrary in scale, which *any* temperature scale will be. But "0" being "absolute 0" is what sets it apart.

      --
      Do you have ESP?
    3. Re:Boiled at 90C? by waterford0069 · · Score: 2

      Why pure water? Probably because it's the most common solvent in the world, and integral to life as we know it. And we can consistently make it.

      Why not water at the average saltiness of the ocean? To complicated
      1) It's a lot easier to produce "pure" water than it is to adjust the salt content of water to match the average
      2) There is more variation than you would think in the saltiness of the ocean - which would require a lot of sampling, and as we did more sampling, the scale would change, or it would become the average of samples at these 46 points done on this day in 1724.
      3) There is a lot more than just NaCl in the ocean, and you'd have to match that exactly
      4) You'd still have to produce pure water first to reliably create your standard for "sea water" in a lab.

      Why sea-level (1.0 ATM / 14.7PSI / etc.)? Probably because it's easy to define and check (it just requires a consistent work).

      Compare that to Fahrenheit, which was originally defined by two end points, the freezing point of a fully saturated solution of water and salt (probably at 1 ATM) as 0'F; and human body temperature as 100'F (of course a human's nominal temps differ to the point that we now expect 98.6'F as your body temperature).

      Coincidentally, Fahrenheit is now defined by the freezing and boiling points of pure water (at 1 ATM) and pegged at 32'F and 212'G for purely "arbitrary" reasons.

    4. Re:Boiled at 90C? by r0kk3rz · · Score: 2
      The primary feature of all SI units (excepting the kilogram) is that they are derived experimentally, because, you know, science.

      Why water?

      Because it's everywhere, and it also can be measured to derive other units, like the Cubic Metre (or its more common non-SI derivative, the Litre).

      Why not salt water at ocean-average saltiness?

      Because then you need a way of accounting for the concentration of salt and anything else that might be present in your water sample, where as pure water can be obtained via distillation.

      Why sea level?

      Because its easy to account for without various atmospheric pressure measuring equipment

      Convenient perhaps if you're working with scientific applications

      That is kind of the point of having scientific units

      It's also perhaps more convenient when dealing with air temperatures. 100 = "It's really hot out there", 0 = "It's really cold out there".

      Now that really is arbitrary.

  8. undead by roman_mir · · Score: 3, Funny

    So they can restore the denaturated proteins to their original state... which basically is a step towards reviving the dead, however weird that sounds.... Undead chickens will take over.

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
  9. Re:Huh what? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 2

    No. The digestive process breaks protein down into amino acids. The process described here is meant to keep the protein intact.

  10. Hard-cooked eggs shouldn't be in boiling water by raymorris · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hard-cooked and soft-cooked eggs should be cooked in water just below boiling. Quoting the best selling cookbook in history, Betty Crocker's Cookbook:

    2. Heat to boiling in saucepan; REMOVE FROM HEAT. Cover and let stand 18 minutes. Immediately cool briefly in cold water to prevent further cooking. Tap egg to crack shell; roll egg between hands to loosen shell, then peel.

    (emphasis mine)

    If you keep the water boiling, you get that nasty green film and the albumen becomes rubbery.

  11. Re:Second link has little to do with the posted to by OverlordQ · · Score: 2

    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com...

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
  12. Correct paper link by OverlordQ · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com...

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
  13. Re:oven baked? by dinfinity · · Score: 2

    Regular chips are fried, not baked.