Dear Leona,

Try placing some embedding medium onto a specimen holder, placing the
specimen holder on the quick freezer, then as it starts to freeze place your
specimen onto the specimen holder, if this is carried out you should not
cause any thawing if you place your specimen at the right moment(just before
the embedding medium totally freezes).

Best Regards

Alan Bright

Bright Instrument Co.Ltd.
St Margarets Way
Huntingdon
PE18 6EB
England

Tel No:+44 (0)1480 454528
Fax No:+44 (0)1480 456031
Email: AlanBright@brightinstruments.com
Web Site: www.brightinstruments.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

-----Original Message-----
From: Leona Cohen-Gould <lcgould@mail.med.cornell.edu>
To: HistoNet Server <HistoNet@Pathology.swmed.edu>
Date: Tuesday, July 13, 1999 04:03
Subject: cryostat sections/breast tissue


>Hi All,
>I run a core service facility (primarily for EM) and have just gotten a
>request to cut frozen sections (for light microscopy/immuno) of breast
>biopsy samples.  To the best of anyones' knowledge, these biopsies were
>flash frozen without cryoprotection and have been stored for an
>indeterminate period of time at -70C.  I usually handle samples for
>research, and have the luxury of controlling processing conditions, so I am
>accusstomed to material that has been cryoprotected and handled carefully.
>I'm sure that there is a trove of information out there about how to deal
>with these samples (i.e.  how do I mount them on the specimen stub without
>thawing them?)
>Thanks for your help,
>Lee Cohen-Gould
>
>Leona Cohen-Gould, M.S.
>Sr. Staff Associate
>Director, Electron Microscopy Core Facility
>Manager, Confocal Microscopy Core Facility
>Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College
>of Cornell University
>voice  (212)746-6146
>fax (212)746-8175
>
>
>