I have human tissue biopsy samples that i need to pulverize without damaging the nuclei. The tissue amount is very small, ~5mg. Some tissues I can simply dounce in a lysis solution but others do not homogenize in the dounce so I use a mortar and pestle to grind the tissue first and then transfer to lysis solution. This method works great except for small samples. The tissue just disappears.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to grind very small amounts of tissue without losing it in a mortar/pestle?

The tissue i am having trouble with is kidney and sarcoma samples.

Thanks.