A device recovers the structure of egg white proteins modified during the cooking process.
A method to uncook eggs | Photo: Steve Zylius / UC Irvine
CienciaXplora| @CienciaXplora | Madrid | Updated on 01/03/2015 at 00:01
If one day you regret having cooked the last egg you had left in the fridge, don't worry, the process can be reversed. Of course, to do so you need the device designed by a group of biochemistry experts, capable of ‘uncooking’ it: it reconstructs the proteins degraded by boiling. Unfortunately, you wouldn't get the product as you bought it.
The scientists have published the development in ChemBioChem. They have tested their method on egg whites boiled for 20 minutes at 90°C. First, they used a urea-derived substance to simulate the effect of lysozymes, enzymes that destroy cells, and thus turn the whites into liquid.
Then, they used the ‘fluid vortex device’ they invented to reconstruct the egg proteins. These molecules are characterised by having a very complex structure that is destroyed during the cooking process and is very difficult to recover.
Many of the methods commonly used for their recycling obtain new forms that do not correspond to the originals and the product becomes unusable. Furthermore, these devices take hours and are expensive. The gadget created by these researchers only takes a few minutes and its manufacture is relatively cheap.
Although they have used eggs to test it, the aim is to apply the system in laboratories to recover some of the proteins used in experiments. This way, they would save time and research costs.
The scientists have published the development in ChemBioChem. They have tested their method on egg whites boiled for 20 minutes at 90°C. First, they used a urea-derived substance to simulate the effect of lysozymes, enzymes that destroy cells, and thus turn the whites into liquid.
Then, they used the ‘fluid vortex device’ they invented to reconstruct the egg proteins. These molecules are characterised by having a very complex structure that is destroyed during the cooking process and is very difficult to recover.
Many of the methods commonly used for their recycling obtain new forms that do not correspond to the originals and the product becomes unusable. Furthermore, these devices take hours and are expensive. The gadget created by these researchers only takes a few minutes and its manufacture is relatively cheap.
Although they have used eggs to test it, the aim is to apply the system in laboratories to recover some of the proteins used in experiments. This way, they would save time and research costs.
