Australian and the University of California Irvine’s chemists have found a way to unboil egg whites. Such an innovation, according to the journal ChemBiochem, is a breakthrough as it could significantly reduce costs for cancer treatments, food production and other segments of the $160 billion global biotechnology industry.

Though there are older methods that could provide the same result, they are costly and time-consuming. This newly invented process only takes minutes.

Chemists in this process add a urea substance in order to re-create a clear protein known as lysozyme once an egg has been boiled. This substance chews away at the whites, liquefying the solid material. A vortex fluid device is then used, followed by a thin, microfluidic films.

"This method … could transform industrial and research production of proteins,” according to the researchers write in ChemBioChem.