[Histonet] Freezing rodent brains for Mass Spec

[Jackie M O'Connor]

I have a colleague who requires snap frozen  rodent brains to perform Mass 
Spec on 10micron frozen sections mounted on plates.     Because OCT 
interferes with mass spec, they are currently using ethanol to slow the 
freezing process to prevent cracking of the brain in liquid nitrogen. The 
alcohol, however, causes some detriment to the surface of the brains - in 
science-speak "they get mushy".    Does anyone have any suggestions for 
snap freezing brains without any substrate while preventing cracking? 

Jackie O'