Hi Timothy,
We have had very good  results freezing core biopsies in the Gentle-Jane
Snap Freezer. We dispense a small amount of CryoGel(or OCT) on the specimen
holder and freeze to make a "safety" layer. This will assure that the
specimen will not freeze into the surface of the specimen holder.
Then we dispense another small amount of Gel on the frozen "safety" layer
and orient the core(s) on the top of the gel. The heat extractor that has
been stored in LN2 and it equilibrated to -196C is placed on the Gentle-Jane
device. It falls at a controlled rate and contacts the cores first(best
freezing) and in 8-10 sec. the cores and the embedding medium are snap
frozen . The block is flat with the cores uppermost in the block which
minimizes trimming to reveal a full face. This snap freezing method depends
not only on the low temperature of LN2. but also on good thermal exchange
that results from the highly polished chrome-plated 3/4 lb heat extractor.
The morphology of the cores has been excellent with this method.

Bernice
schiller@instrumedics.com