Satoshi Akanuma, Professor


Satoshi_Akanuma

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

  • Design of thermally stable and low-temperature active enzymes
  • Development of plastic-degrading enzymes
  • Experimental resurrection of ancestral proteins
  • Exploring amino acid compositions in primordial proteins

    • Selected publications

  • Switching ATP-forming phosphoryl-transfer chemistry with a restricted set of amino acids
    • Yagi S, Dasgupta S, Tagami S, Akanuma S.
    Angew Chem Int Ed, e2166480, https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.2166480 (2026) Wiley
  • Learning About Protein Stability and Functional Activity From Ancestral Reconstruction
    • Akanuma S.
    J Mol Biol, 438(4), 169435, https://doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2025.169435 (2026) Science Direct
  • Insights into the low-temperature adaptation of an enzyme as studied through ancestral sequence reconstruction
    • Cui S, Dasgupta S, Yagi S, Kimura M, Furukawa R, Tagami S, Akanuma S.
    Protein Sci 34(3):e70071, https://doi.org/10.1002/pro.70071 (2025) Wiley Waseda Univ. EurekAlert! Alpha Galileo
  • Comparative analysis of reconstructed ancestral proteins with their extant counterparts suggests primitive life had an alkaline habitat
    • Fujikawa T, Sasamoto T, Zhao F, Yamagishi A, Akanuma S.
    Sci Rep 14, 398, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-50828-4 (2024) Springer Nature
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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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