cancer

Researchers Find a Way to Unboil an Egg

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Consider this one of the fundamental truths as I was growing up and taking a number of courses in basic biology (and later, microbiology and chemistry): once you boil an egg, there is no way to unboil that egg. Proteins denature once subjected to heat, and do not re-fold back to their original shape/structure.

Turns out, based on most recent research, that may not necessarily be the case: According to findings published in the journal ChemBioChem,

University of California 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.

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To re-create a clear protein known as lysozyme once an egg has been boiled, he and his colleagues add a urea substance that chews away at the whites, liquefying the solid material. That’s half the process; at the molecular level, protein bits are still balled up into unusable masses. The scientists then employ a vortex fluid device, a high-powered machine designed by Professor Colin Raston’s laboratory at South Australia’s Flinders University. Shear stress within thin, microfluidic films is applied to those tiny pieces, forcing them back into untangled, proper form.

In a paper titled “Shear-Stress-Mediated Refolding of Proteins from Aggregates and Inclusion Bodies,” this is the abstract:

Recombinant protein overexpression of large proteins in bacteria often results in insoluble and misfolded proteins directed to inclusion bodies. We report the application of shear stress in micrometer-wide, thin fluid films to refold boiled hen egg white lysozyme, recombinant hen egg white lysozyme, and recombinant caveolin-1. Furthermore, the approach allowed refolding of a much larger protein, cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA). The reported methods require only minutes, which is more than 100 times faster than conventional overnight dialysis. This rapid refolding technique could significantly shorten times, lower costs, and reduce waste streams associated with protein expression for a wide range of industrial and research applications.

Obviously, this is tremendous news that will seek other labs trying to replicate the study.

Why Everyone Seems to Have Cancer

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A thoughtful take on comparing heart disease and cancer by George Johnson in The New York Times.

Half a century ago, the story goes, a person was far more likely to die from heart disease. Now cancer is on the verge of overtaking it as the No. 1 cause of death.

Troubling as this sounds, the comparison is unfair. Cancer is, by far, the harder problem — a condition deeply ingrained in the nature of evolution and multicellular life. Given that obstacle, cancer researchers are fighting and even winning smaller battles: reducing the death toll from childhood cancers and preventing — and sometimes curing — cancers that strike people in their prime. But when it comes to diseases of the elderly, there can be no decisive victory. This is, in the end, a zero-sum game.

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As people age their cells amass more potentially cancerous mutations. Given a long enough life, cancer will eventually kill you — unless you die first of something else. That would be true even in a world free from carcinogens and equipped with the most powerful medical technology.

The author is keen on pointing out that the future of medicine will be focused on prevention rather than treatment.

15-Year-Old Improves Pancreatic Cancer Test

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Maryland teenager Jack Andraka (featured in the video above) isn’t old enough to drive yet, but he’s just pioneered a new, improved test for diagnosing pancreatic cancer that is 90% accurate, 400 times more sensitive, and 26,000 times less expensive than existing methods.

When Andraka had solidified ideas for his novel paper sensor, he wrote out his procedure, timeline, and budget, and emailed 200 professors at research institutes. He got 199 rejections and one acceptance from Johns Hopkins: “If you send out enough emails, someone’s going to say yes.” Andraka was recently awarded the grand prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his groundbreaking discoveries.

Persistence is the key.

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(via Make)