Here’s a quick question about extracting teeny tiny lizard brains, and my quick answer:

Question:
I'm sending you this email because a friend here is dissecting some baby lizards, and he wants to keep the brains in case someone in the future wants to use it for transcriptomics… Any recommendations - compared with extracting mouse brains? Apparently they don't care about the shape too much, neither the regions. Any tips would be appreciated.

My answer:
This is what I recommend: he get 2 pairs of really pointy forceps (I recommend #5s, but he might need even finer ones) that are new and good (i.e. the tips of the forceps make perfect contact, they aren't bent or broken or anything), a dissection pad, some pins (the kind used to pin insects are ideal, he'll need some pretty fine ones), a dissecting microscope, and some good strong lighting. Pin the head top-up to the dissection pad, avoiding the area between the eyes and between the nostrils. Pull apart the skin, muscle, and skull using the two pairs of forceps to expose the brain from above. It's a little pale cream-coloured thing located between and just behind the eyes. He can also extract the olfactory bulbs by doing the same thing in between the nostrils. Let me know if you need any further help!

As always, I’d be interested in anyone else’s thoughts on this question or my answer. if you have thoughts, please get in touch!