Academic research on structural proteins

The methods and technologies Spiber has developed for the production and utilization of our materials are based on a multitude of interdisciplinary research initiatives. Many important questions crucial to structural protein development and production remain unanswered, particularly in the frontier research topic that forms Spiber’s core competency—understanding the mechanism that drives the expression of our specially-designed proteins. We believe that pioneering the new technologies and knowledge required by our endeavour will require a coordinated fusion of the best solutions that academia and industry have to offer.

By applying the latest academic developments to the cyclical research and development process that drives our efforts to commercialize structural proteins, we believe that we can contribute to the global scientific endeavor to bring about a more sustainable future. It is this belief that inspires our research into a wide range of natural protein materials and their properties, from the incredible softness of premium luxury cashmere to the tough and tensile spider silk that inspired our company’s name.

Protein materials are unmatched in terms of their potential for diversity across both form and function, and we are confident that their impact on humanity and the world will only continue to grow as our knowledge and ability to utilize them increases through the combined efforts of industry and academia.

• Biomacromolecules |  April 10, 2023
  Composition of Minor Ampullate Silk Makes Its Properties Different from Those of Major Ampullate Silk
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• Science Advances |  October 13, 2022
  1000 spider silkomes: Linking sequences to silk physical properties

  Kazuharu Arakawa, Nobuaki Kono, Ali D. Malay, Ayaka Tateishi, Nao Ifuku, Hiroyasu Masunaga, Ryota Sato, Kousuke Tsuchiya, Rintaro Ohtoshi, Daniel Pedrazzoli, Asaka Shinohara, Yusuke Ito, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Akio Tanikawa, Yuya Suzuki, Takeaki Ichikawa, Shohei Fujita, Masayuki Fujiwara, Masaru Tomita, Sean J. Blamires, Jo-Ann Chuah, Hamish Craig, Choon P. Foong, Gabriele Greco, Juan Guan, Chris Holland, David L. Kaplan, Kumar Sudesh, Biman B. Mandal, Y. Norma-Rashid, Nur A. Oktaviani, Rucsanda C. Preda, Nicola M. Pugno, Rangam Rajkhowa, Xiaoqin Wang, Kenjiro Yazawa, Zhaozhu Zheng, Keiji Numata

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• Zoological Letters |  August 01, 2022
  The balance of crystalline and amorphous regions in the fibroin structure underpins the tensile strength of bagworm silk

  Nobuaki Kono, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Ayaka Tateishi, Keiji Numata, Kazuharu Arakawa

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• International Journal of Biological Macromolecules |  February 23, 2022
  The solubility of N-acetyl amino acid amides in organic acid and alcohol solutions: Mechanistic insight into structural protein solubilization

  Atsushi Hirano, Momoyo Wada, Takehiro K.Sato, Tomoshi Kameda

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• Molecules |  January 14, 2022
  Presence of β-Turn Structure in Recombinant Spider Silk Dissolved in Formic Acid Revealed with NMR

  Yu Suzuki, Takanori Higash, Takahiro Yamamoto, Hideyasu Okamura, Takehiro K. Sato and Tetsuo Asakura

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• Open Biology |  December 22, 2021
  Darwin’s bark spider shares a spidroin repertoire with Caerostris extrusa but achieves extraordinary silk toughness through gene expression

  Nobuaki Kono, Rintaro Ohtoshi, Ali D. Malay, Masaru Mori, Hiroyasu Masunaga, Yuki Yoshida, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Keiji Numata and Kazuharu Arakawa

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• Engineering Biology |  December 10, 2021
  Fuelling the future of sustainable sugar fermentation across generations

  David Lips

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• Data in Brief |  September 20, 2021
  Transcriptomic data during development of a two-spotted cricket Gryllus bimaculatus

  Nobuaki Kono, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Rintaro Ohtoshi, Kazuharu Arakawa

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• Perspective | Emerging Topics in Life Sciences |  September 08, 2021
  Practical considerations for delivering on the sustainability promise of fermentation-based biomanufacturing

  David Lips

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• Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America |  August 06, 2021
  Multicomponent nature underlies the extraordinary mechanical properties of spider dragline silk

  Nobuaki Kono, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Masaru Mori, Yuki Yoshida, Rintaro Ohtoshi, Ali D. Malay, Daniel A. Pedrazzoli Moran, Masaru Tomita, Keiji Numata, and Kazuharu Arakawa

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• Zoological Letters |  July 26, 2021
  The balance of crystalline and amorphous regions in the fibroin structure underpins the tensile strength of bagworm silk

  Nobuaki Kono, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Ayaka Tateishi, Keiji Numata and Kazuharu Arakawa

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• Mitochondrial DNA Part B |  July 26, 2021
  The complete mitochondrial genome of Trichonephila clavipes (Araneae: Araneidae)

  Nobuaki Kono, Hiroyuki Nakamura and Kazuharu Arakawa

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• Biomolecules |  April 12, 2021
  Xanthurenic Acid Is the Main Pigment of Trichonephila clavata Gold Dragline Silk

  Masayuki Fujiwara, Nobuaki Kono, Akiyoshi Hirayama, Ali D. Malay, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Rintaro Ohtoshi, Keiji Numata, Masaru Tomita and Kazuharu Arakawa

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• Scientific Reports |  January 08, 2021
  Environmental biodegradability of recombinant structural protein

  Yuya Tachibana, Sunita Darbe, Senri Hayashi, Alina Kudasheva, Haruna Misawa, Yuka Shibata & Ken-ichi Kasuya

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• Polymer Journal |  October 01, 2020
  Aqueous spinning system with a citrate buffer for highly extensible silk fibers

  Jianming Chen, Yoshinori Ohta, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Hiroyasu Masunaga, Keiji Numata

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• Scientific Reports |  September 24, 2020
  Spidroin profiling of cribellate spiders provides insight into the evolution of spider prey capture strategies

  Nobuaki Kono, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Masaru Mori, Masaru Tomita & Kazuharu Arakawa

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• Molecular Biology and Evolution |  August 14, 2019
  Sequenceserver: a modern graphical user interface for custom BLAST databases

  Anurag Priyam, Ben J Woodcroft, Vivek Rai, Ismail Moghul, Alekhya Munagala, Filip Ter, Hiten Chowdhary, Iwo Pieniak, Lawrence J Maynard, Mark Anthony Gibbins, HongKee Moon, Austin Davis-Richardson, Mahmut Uludag, Nathan S Watson-Haigh, Richard Challis, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Emeline Favreau, Esteban A Gómez, Tomás Pluskal, Guy Leonard, Wolfgang Rumpf, Yannick Wurm

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• Scientific Reports |  June 10, 2019
  Orb-weaving spider Araneus ventricosus genome elucidates the spidroin gene catalogue

  Nobuaki Kono, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Rintaro Ohtoshi, Daniel A. Pedrazzoli Moran, Asaka Shinohara, Yuki Yoshida, Masayuki Fujiwara, Masaru Mori, Masaru Tomita & Kazuharu Arakawa

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• Communications Biology |  April 29, 2019
  The bagworm genome reveals a unique fibroin gene that provides high tensile strength

  Nobuaki Kono, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Rintaro Ohtoshi, Masaru Tomita, Keiji Numata & Kazuharu Arakawa

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• Mitochondrial DNA Part B |  August 01, 2018
  The complete mitochondrial genome of Eumeta variegata (Lepidoptera: Psychidae)

  Kazuharu Arakawa, Nobuaki Kono, Rintaro Ohtoshi, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Masaru Tomita

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• Polymer Degradation and Stability |  April 12, 2018
  Stabilization of recombinant spider silk in thermo-oxidative degradation: High-throughput screening for antioxidants

  Anh T.N. Dao, Jun'ichi Shimokata, Kengo Takeuchi, Koyuru Nakayama, Toshiaki Taniike

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• Scientific Reports |  January 29, 2018
  Reconstruction of cysteine biosynthesis using engineered cysteine-free enzymes

  Kosuke Fujishima, Kendrick M. Wang, Jesse A. Palmer, Nozomi Abe, Kenji Nakahigashi, Drew Endy & Lynn J. Rothschild

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• Macromolecules |  October 13, 2017
  NMR Investigation about Heterogeneous Structure and Dynamics of Recombinant Spider Silk in the Dry and Hydrated States

  Yugo Tasei, Akio Nishimura, Yu Suzuki, Takehiro K. Sato, Junichi Sugahara, and Tetsuo Asakura

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• Polymer Degradation and Stability |  August 12, 2017
  Chemiluminescence from recombinant spider silk under thermo-oxidative degradation

  Koyuru Nakayama, Anh T.N. Dao, Kengo Takeuchi, Junichi Shimokata, Toshiaki Taniike

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• Polymer Chemistry |  January 02, 2017
  Multilateral characterization of recombinant spider silk in thermal degradation

  Anh T. N. Dao, K. Nakayama, J. Shimokata and T. Taniike

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• Biomacromolecules |  February 02, 2016
  Influence of Water Content on the β-Sheet Formation, Thermal Stability, Water Removal, and Mechanical Properties of Silk Materials

  Kenjiro Yazawa, Kana Ishida, Hiroyasu Masunaga, Takaaki Hikima and Keiji Numata

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• Molecular Ecology Resources |  November 12, 2015
  Evaluation of the impact of RNA preservation methods of spiders for de novo transcriptome assembly

  Nobuaki Kono, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Yusuke Ito, Masaru Tomita, Kazuharu Arakawa

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• Polymer |  October 23, 2015
  Crystal structure and physical properties of Antheraea yamamai silk fibers: Long poly(alanine) sequences are partially in the crystalline region

  Keiji Numata, Ryota Sato, Kenjiro Yazawa, Takaaki Hikima, Hiroyasu Masunaga

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• Soft Matter |  June 30, 2015
  Use of extension-deformation-based crystallisation of silk fibres to differentiate their functions in nature

  Keiji Numata, Hiroyasu Masunaga, Takaaki Hikima, Sono Sasaki, Kazuhide Sekiyama and Masaki Takata

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