This study demonstrates how vine shoot waste, an underutilized agricultural byproduct, can be transformed into fermentable sugars using choline chloride-based deep eutectic solvents (DESs). Researchers evaluated two DES formulations and found that ChCl:lactic acid (1:5) pretreatment significantly enhanced carbohydrate conversion, achieving rates of up to 75.2% for cellulose and 99.9% for xylan. Enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated biomass was performed in the INFORS HT Minitron incubator shaker, enabling controlled saccharification. The results support a greener, efficient approach to biomass fractionation and lignin recovery, with strong potential for sustainable bioprocessing and agricultural waste valorization.

Researchers have sequenced and characterized a novel thermophilic cyanobacterium isolated from a hot spring in Namibia, revealing how it adapts to extreme heat through temperature responsive protein expression. Cultivated using the INFORS HT Labfors bench-top bioreactor, the strain proposed to represent a new genus within the Thermosynechococcaceae family displayed distinct genomic and proteomic features linked to thermotolerance. These findings expand our understanding of extremophile adaptation and highlight promising targets for future bioengineering and high temperature biotechnological applications.