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Biomaterials Chemistry Lab
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A lab that learns from spider silk to build new materials from amino acids.
AboutAbout the lab
Using polymers made by living things as materials.
The Biomaterials Chemistry Lab studies the use of polyamino acids (polypeptides, structural proteins), which are chains of linked amino acids, as materials.
The lab's greatest distinguishing feature is designing materials based on the relationship between polymer structure and physical properties.
As structural materials, the lab is developing artificial silk that mimics natural spider silk.
As functional materials, it works on using peptides to deliver genes into plant cells and modify plants.
Key terms
- Polyamino acid
- A polymer in which amino acids are linked in a chain. Proteins and peptides are also part of this family
- Chemoenzymatic polymerization
- A method that uses the reverse reaction of a degrading enzyme to link small molecules together into a polymer
- Beta-sheet structure
- A structure in which protein chains line up side by side, held by hydrogen bonds, and fold into a sheet. It is the source of silk's strength
NewsLab news
Results on an environmentally friendly nitrogen fertilizer made from marine purple photosynthetic bacteria were published in npj Sustainable Agriculture
Results elucidating the self-assembly of spider silk proteins were published in Adv. Funct. Mater.
Results on using photosynthetic bacteria in place of inorganic fertilizer were published in npj Sustainable Agriculture
Results establishing a technology to deliver nucleic acids into brown algae were published in JACS Au
Results reproducing the formation process of spider silk in a microfluidic device were published in Nature Communications
ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to clarify the correlation between the structure and physical properties of biopolymers and to put them to use as practical materials. Targeting biopolyesters and polypeptides, it pursues both artificial silk as a structural material and plant modification using peptides as a functional material.
*Illustrative imageLinking amino acids with enzymes
Using chemoenzymatic polymerization, which exploits the reverse reaction of a peptide-degrading enzyme (protease), the lab became the first in the world to polymerize alanine, a hydrophobic amino acid that had been difficult to synthesize. This paved the way for large-scale synthesis of artificial silk.
*Illustrative imageDecoding how spider silk forms to make artificial silk
Focusing on the beta-sheet structure formed by silk proteins, the lab investigates the process from crystallization in solution to fiber formation during spinning, using rheology, scattering methods, and microscopy.
*Illustrative imageRewriting cellular organelles with peptides
The lab has created carriers that deliver genes directly into cells by fusing a structural protein with high biocompatibility and biodegradability to functional peptides.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Biomaterials Chemistry Lab consist of faculty, researchers, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, and staff.As of 2026
- ProfessorKeiji Numata
- Program-Specific ProfessorKenji Oeda
- Program-Specific ProfessorTetsuya Nakazaki
- LecturerMasashi Ohmae
- Program-Specific Associate ProfessorMasaki Odahara
- Program-Specific LecturerKayo Terada
- Assistant ProfessorYui Tsuji
- Assistant ProfessorLAW Simon Sau Yin
- Assistant ProfessorYasuha Watanabe
- Program-Specific Assistant ProfessorYAGI Shamitha Rao
- Program-Specific Assistant ProfessorOKTAVIANI Nur Alia
- Program-Specific Assistant ProfessorMEZA GONZALEZ Brandon
- Program-Specific Assistant ProfessorDIXIT Mayank
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Spider Silk - PMG” ConformationXII / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Linking amino acids with enzymes: “9pap papain” Opabinia regalis / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Decoding how spider silk forms to make artificial silk: “1gwe antipar betaSheet both” Dcrjsr / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Rewriting cellular organelles with peptides: “Silkworm cocoons” Fumikas Sagisavas / CC0 (cropped)
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