Scientists have cracked the code for un-boiling hard-boiled egg whites and it could have huge implications for cancer research.

Egg whites are made of proteins that start out with a certain shape, explained Gregory Weiss, a professor of chemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, Irvine, and the experiment’s lead researcher.

“Once you boil them, the proteins stay intact but they change their conformation,” he said.

This is a big deal because even chemists assumed once you hard-boiled an egg it was game over, Weiss explained. But his team has been able to reverse the process so that proteins can be recovered and reused.