Homogenizer

A homogenizer is a piece of laboratory equipment for the homogenization of various types of material, such as tissue, plant, food, soil, and many others. Many different models have been developed using various physical technologies for the disruption. Mortar and pestle is used for thousands of years already and still is a standard tool even in modern laboratories. More modern solutions are based on blender type of instruments (also known in the kitchen), bead mills, ultra sonic treatment, high pressure, and many other physical forces. Whereas older technologies just focussed on the disruption of the material, latest technologies also more address quality or environmental aspects, such as cross-contamination, aerosols, risk of infection, or noise.

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