Clean and reuse disposable pestles? - (Jun/01/2007 )

Hi, we need to isolate DNA from a lot of individual specimen in our population genetics study. We use disposable pestles to disrupt and homogenate the specimen. These disposable pestles are really expensive. The lowest price I can find is $0.60 each. Considering the total specimens we genotype, that is a big portion of our expense. If we can clean and reuse them, that’s gonna be a huge saving. Does anyone have any idea how to clean these pestles? The only thing we much concern is the cross contamination. Would clean with bleach and then UV treatment work?

Thanks!

we use porcelin morter and pestle to grind mycelia under liquid nitrogen. we reuse the morter and pestle. after used we autoclave them with lots of water, so that mycelia powder would not attach to the morter and pestle body. after autoclave we wash it properly with detergent and then dry it. for future use we bake the morter and pestle for 2-3 hours (DNase free) or 8-10 hours (RNase free) at 180c.

Thanks! but that won't work for me. We usually do 50 DNA isolations all at a time. Just imaging 50 morters on the table!
Besides, I don't think the disposable pestles can be baked at that tempreture.

well i have experience to use 30 morter and pestle at a time. i didnt feel so much hazards, i used an extra trolly beside my desk and keep all the culture flask there. anyway it was past, now we used machine for grinding. its very easy. we insert mycelia (~100 mg) in eppendorf tube and insert a metal cone in it and pour it in liquid nitrogen for 5 mins and then grind it in shocker machine for 10 sec and we get fine powder of mycelia. we use this procedure for extract DNA, RNA and protein also.