Homogenizer

The mortar and pestle, already used for thousands of years, is a standard tool even in modern laboratories.

More modern solutions are based on blender type instruments, bead mills, ultrasonic treatment (also sonication), rotor-stator mechanical, high pressure, and many other physical forces.

Homogenization is a very common sample preparation step prior to the analysis of nucleic acids, proteins, cells, metabolism, pathogens, and many other targets.

As a simple alternative for mortar and pestle, frosted glass slides are used for homogenizing small and soft tissue specimens.

Tissue specimen is homogenized in a small volume of appropriate buffer between corner areas of two frosted glass slides by circular movement; then homogenate is collected by a pipette.