Dounce homogenizer

Invented by and named for Alexander Dounce[1][2] , a Dounce homogenizer or "Douncer", is a cylindrical glass tube, closed at one end, with two glass pestles of carefully specified outer diameters, intended for the gentle homogenization of eukaryotic cells (e.g. mammalian cells).

Dounce homogenizers are still commonly used today to isolate cellular organelles.

[3] This allows for tissue and cells to be lysed by shear stress with minimal (if any) degree of heating, thereby leaving extracted organelles or heat-sensitive enzyme complexes largely intact.

Typically, a soft tissue (e.g. mammalian liver) is cut or broken into smaller pieces and placed into the glass cylinder, alongside a suitable volume of an appropriate lysis buffer.

Dounce homogenizers are typically produced from borosilicate glass, but are still fragile, and should be used with care.

The Dounce homogenizers, devices used for mechanical lysis of tissue or cells, were invented by and named after Alexander Dounce.
Homogenized mouse hippocampus at the bottom of a Dounce homogenizer tube.