Satoshi Akanuma, Professor
Education and Positions
1998 Ph. D. in Science at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan)
1998-2001 Special Post Doctoral Researcher at RIKEN Institute (Japan
2001 Research Associate at RIKEN Genomic Sciences Center (Japan)
2001-2003 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Post Doctoral Researcher at Cologne University (Germany)
2003-2005 Post Doctoral Researcher at JST BIRD (Japan)
2005-2006 Post Doctoral Researcher at NFRI (Japan)
2006-2015 Assistant Professor at Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences (Japan)
2015-2020 Associate Professor at Waseda University (Japan)
2020- Professor at Waseda University (Japan)
Office
Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University
2-579-15 Mikajima, Tokorozawa, Saitama 359-1192, Japan
Tel: +81-4-2947-6727 (ex. 76-3530)
E-mail:akanuma @ waseda.jp (Please remove spaces)
Present studies
Experimental resurrection of ancestral proteins
Exploring amino acid compositions in primordial proteins
Molecular adaptation of proteins to temperatures: Design of thermally stable proteins and low-temperature activation of thermophilic enzymes
Development of plastic-degrading enzymes
Selected publications
Ancestral sequence reconstruction of the ribosomal protein uS8 and reduction of amino acid usage to a smaller alphabet
Zhao F, Akanuma S.
J Mol Evol, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-022-10078-w (2022)
Springer Nature
Comprehensive mutagenesis to identify amino acid residues contributing to the difference in thermostability between two originally thermostable ancestral proteins
Akanuma S, Yamaguchi M, Yamagishi A.
PLoS ONE 16(10):e0258821, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258821 (2021)
PLOS
Ancestral sequence reconstruction produces thermally stable enzymes with mesophilic enzyme-like catalytic properties
Furukawa R, Toma W, Yamazaki K, Akanuma S.
Sci. Rep., https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72418-4 (2020)
Springer Nature
Reconstruction and characterization of thermally stable and catalytically active proteins comprising an alphabet of ∼13 amino acids
Kimura M, Akanuma S.
J. Mol. Evol. 88, 372–381, doi:10.1007/s00239-020-09938-0 (2020)
Springer
Establishment of mesophilic-like catalytic properties in a thermophilic enzyme without affecting its thermal stability
Akanuma S, Bessho M, Kimura H, Furukawa R, Yokobori S, Yamagishi A.
Comprehensive reduction of amino acid set in a protein suggests the importance of prebiotic amino acids for stable proteins
Shibue R, Sasamoto T, Shimada M, Zhang B, Yamagishi A, Akanuma S.
Creation of artificial protein-protein interactions using α-helices as interfaces
Yagi S, Akanuma S, Yamagishi A.
Biophys Rev. doi: 10.1007/s12551-017-0352-9 (2018)
Springer
Characterization of Reconstructed Ancestral Proteins Suggests a Change in Temperature of the Ancient Biosphere
Akanuma S.
Life 7(3), 33; doi:10.3390/life7030033 (2017)
MDPI
Reconstructed ancestral enzymes suggest long-term cooling of Earth's photic zone since the Archean
Garcia AK, Schopf JW, Yokobori SI, Akanuma S, Yamagishi A.
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 114(18), 4619–4624 (2017)
PNAS
Robustness of predictions of extremely thermally stable proteins in ancient organisms
Akanuma S, Yokobori S, Nakajima Y, Bessho M, Yamagishi A.
Evolution 69(11), 2954-2962 (2015)
Wiley
Experimental evidence for the thermophilicity of ancestral life
Akanuma S, Nakajima Y, Yokobori S, Kimuraa M, Nemoto N, Mase T, Miyazono K, Tanokura M, Yamagishi A.