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.
    Sci. Rep. 9, 9346, doi:10.1038/s41598-019-45560-x (2019) Springer Nature
  • 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.
    Sci. Rep. 8: 1227, doi:10.1038/s41598-018-19561-1 (2018) Springer Nature
  • 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.
    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110 (27), 11067-11072 (2013) PubMed PNAS This Week in PNAS

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