Laboratory of Biomolecular Chemistry - Faculty and Graduate School of Engineering Hokkaido University・Faculty of Engineering

Associate Professor Tajima gave a lecture titled "Nanocellulose made by sugar beet and microorganisms will change the world," at the Agri-Seeds Seminar "Plant-derived New Materials from Hokkaido: From Seeds Development to Commercialization" held on September 12 (Tuesday) in the conference room on the 19th floor of the Hoku-Noh Building. Many people attended the lecture. The event was attended by many people and provided a very good opportunity to learn about the efforts currently being made in the laboratory.
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Cellulose Material Symposium & Exhibition 2023 in Sizuoka will be held on October 2 (1pm-4pm) and 3 (9am-3pm) and we will be exhibiting.
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The 75th SBJ Meeting was held in Nagoya, Japan, on September 3-5. Kaneko (M1) gave an oral presentation.
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Associate Professor Tajima gave a lecture titled "Mass Production and Applications of NFBC" at the 15th Robust Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Engineering "Leading Science and Technology Research Meeting" held at TKP Shinagawa Grand Central Tower Conference Center, 3rd Floor Hall 3B. It was a very good opportunity for many people, including members of the Robust Research Society, to learn about the current efforts being made in our laboratory.

We participated in the Young Polymer Meeting & Summer Uni held at Jozankei Onsen Shikanoyu. At the Young Scientists' Meeting, Research Scientist Takayama, M1 students Kawabata, Maeda, and Tanaka, and B4 student Ishidou gave poster presentations.
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Mrs.Hamida(D1) received the Young Scientist Poster Award at IPC 2023. Congratulations!
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Associate Professor Tajima will give a lecture titled "Mass Production and Applications of NFBC" at the 15th Robust Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Engineering "Science and Technology Leading Research Meeting" on Wednesday, August 30 at Hall 3B, 3F, North TKP Shinagawa Grand Central Tower Conference Center.
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Associate Professor Tajima will give a lecture titled "Nanocellulose made by sugar beet and microorganisms will change the world," at the Agri-Seeds Seminar "Plant-derived New Materials from Hokkaido: From Seeds Development to Commercialization" to be held on September 12 (Tue.) in the conference room on the 19th floor of the Hoku-Noh Building.
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Thanks to all B4s for your hard work on the graduate school entrance exam!
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Assistant Professor Fujiwara has moved to the Insutitute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery(ICReDD), Hokkaido University, as a specially-appointed associate professor. We congratulate him on his promotion.
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The 13th SPSJ International Polymer Conference (IPC 2023) held at Sapporo Convention Center on July 19-21 held at the Sapporo Convention Center from July 19 to 21. From our laboratory, D3 Kugo and D1 Hamidah made a presentation.
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The results of our joint research with Polymer Chemistry Laboratory have been published in Angewandte Chemie with Dr. Ebe as the first author. In this report, we succeeded in synthesizing a network polymer incorporating a polycyclic polymer in the form of a rotaxane and named this giant rotaxane "macrorotaxane. Macrorotaxanes have a very large degree of freedom in structure and molecular design because the number and size of rings of cyclic polymers can be freely arranged, and are expected to be applied to a wide range of applications in the future.
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On July 19, Associate Professor Tajima gave a lecture entitled "Development and Utilization of Completely Recyclable New Material Using Sugar Beans (Cellulose Nanofiber Produced by Microorganisms)" at a meeting of the Japan Society of Food and Agriculture held in the 19th floor conference room of the Hoku-Noh Bldg. More than 100 people attended the event and it was a great opportunity to let people know about our laboratory's activities, The event was a great opportunity for the audience to learn about our laboratory's activities.
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We visited the Laboratory of Nippon Beet Sugar Co., Ltd. to conduct culture experiments for efficient production of NFBC.
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We exhibited at Pharmalabo EXPO Tokyo held at Tokyo Big Sight from July 5 to 7. (https://www.interphex.jp/tokyo/ja-jp/search/2023/directory/directory-details.org-276fd45b-1d8d-4ff9-8d26-649270c97cba.html#/)

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Associate Professor Tajima will give a lecture titled "Development and Utilization of Completely Recyclable New Material (Microbially Produced Cellulose Nanofiber) Using Sugar Beans" at the 21st Technical Research Presentation of Green Technobank Tensai Research Group to be held on Wednesday, July 19, at the conference room on the 19th floor of Hoku-Noh Building.
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We will exhibit at Pharmalabo EXPO Tokyo（https://www.interphex.jp/tokyo/ja-jp/about/prd.html） to be held at Tokyo Big Sight from July 5 to 7, and Associate Professor Tajima will give a lecture titled "Structure and Properties of Bacteria-derived Cellulose Nanofibers and Their Applications" on Friday, July 7, from 2:40 p.m.
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A joint Genghis Khan party was held in the Polymer Chemistry, Molecular Integrated Chemistry, and Biomolecular Chemistry laboratories. About 30 people including guests from CERMAV (France), internship students from Taiwan and China, faculty members, post-doctoral fellows, and students enjoyed the party.

Kawabata (M1) received the Best Poster Award at the 72nd SPSJ Annual Meeting. Congratulations!
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Associate Professor Kose of the Graduate School of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, who used to be a postdoctoral fellow, and his student, Mrs. Hirano, visited our laboratory. From June 5 to 8, Mrs. Hirano conducted NFBC sheeting and tensile test experiments in our laboratory. To welcome them, we had the first Genghis Khan party this year.
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The results of joint research with Polymer Chemistry Laboratory have been published in Polymer Chemistry with Dr. Ebii as the first author (IF=5.364). The authors succeeded in the systematic synthesis of polycyclic polystyrenes by cyclization polymerization and systematically evaluated the effects of the polycyclic structure on various physical properties. We have also succeeded in synthesizing polycyclic copolymers with polystyrene segments.
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The 72nd Annual Meeting of the Society of Polymer Science, Japan (Takasaki) was held on May 24 and 25. From our laboratory, Dr. Tajima, Dr. Kugo (D3), Dr. Hamida (D1), Dr. Hoshino (M2), Dr. Kaneko (M1), and Dr. Kawabata (M1) gave poster presentations. Thank you for your hard work.
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We participated in a softball tournament! Everyone did very well.
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The results of joint research with Polymer Chemistry Laboratory, Dr. Igarashi and Dr. Sunagawa at the University of Tokyo have been published in Carbohydrate Polymers with Katsuhara as the first author (IF=410.723). Katsuhara as the first author, was published in Carbohydrate Polymers (IF=410.723). Acetylcellulose and polycellulose with various degrees of substitution Triblock copolymers of acetylcellulose with various degrees of substitution and poly(decanolactone) (AcCelx-b-PDL-b-AcCelx) with various degrees of substitution. New thermoplastic elastomers containing cellulose The new thermoplastic elastomer is expected to be used as a new thermoplastic elastomer containing cellulose.
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We visited AIKI RioTech to conduct an experiment.
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The online edition of Nature, a comprehensive international scientific journal, has published an advertisement in the online edition of the magazine, "Focal Point on Bioplastics. Bacterial cellulose comes out of the woodwork" was published as part of the special feature project "Focal Point on Bioplastics" in the online edition of Nature, a comprehensive international scientific journal.
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Experiments were conducted in the laboratory of Mr. Kazuyoshi Murata at the Institute of Physiological Sciences, an Inter-University Research Institute.
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Dragon with "Kirara" No. 4, containing cellulose (nata de coco) synthesizing bacteria On April 18, the Kirara 4 cargo ship (SpX-27), carrying Kirara 4, a cellulose (nata de coco) synthesizing bacteria, left the International Space Station (ISS) on April 15. On April 18, Kirara 4 was launched to the Kennedy Space Center. After its arrival, we will analyze its products. The analysis of the products is scheduled to be performed after its arrival.
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The new academic year has started at the Biomolecular Chemistry Laboratory. We are pleased to announce that four new members have joined our lab, including Dr. Tsuyoshi Takayama from Kyushu University and B4 students. Let's work together as One Team to keep the lab running smoothly and injury-free throughout the year! Let's make our lab exciting with One Team and avoid injuries during the year!

The degree conferment ceremony (graduation ceremony) for the class of 2022 was held. Congratulations!

Kawabata (B4) received the Dean of Engineering Award. Congratulations!

Co-sponsored with the One Earth Guardians Development Program of the University of Tokyo , LUC Lecture "Art x The Potential of Biomaterials: Sustainable Manufacturing Made in Space, Destroyed in Space Sustainable Manufacturing Made in Space and Made to Rub Together in Space" was held at LUC. Associate Professor Tajima gave a lecture.

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March 15, 2023, 9:30 a.m. (Japan time),JAMSS (Japan Manned Space Systems Corporation) has announced that Kirara 4, a high-quality protein crystal production service, will be used for Space X's Dragon supply. Kirara No. 4, a high-quality protein crystal production service from JAMSS (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), has been installed on Space X's Dragon resupply ship No. 27 (SpX-27). Kirara 4, a high-quality protein crystal production service, was installed on Space X's Dragon supply ship 27 (SpX-27) ,was launched to the International Space Station (ISS).The next day, it docked to the ISS, and on March 18, it was loaded onto the ICE Cubes Facility of Space Applications Services, Inc. Space Applications Services' ICE Cubes Facility on March 18, and began experiments. After that, it will take about one month to synthesize bacterial cellulose. The experiment will take about one month to synthesize bacterial cellulose.

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Four new B4s have been assigned.

The results of our joint research with Prof. Kono of Tomakomai National College of Technology have been published in ACS Applied Nano Materials (IF=6.140). The cationization of quaternary ammonium salts into NFBCs has enabled their use as antimicrobial materials, nanofillers, and flocculants.

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.3c00616

Master students presented their thesis.

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Bachelor students presented their thesis.

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We had a bean-throwing ceremony👹

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The results of our joint research with Dr. Yamamoto in the Laboratory of Molecular Integrated Chemistry have been published in Polymers (IF=4.967). We synthesized cyclic poly(3-hexylthiophene)s with degrees of polymerization ranging from 14 to 43 and investigated their redox behavior due to their cyclic topology. redox behavior due to their cyclic topology. "Molecular Weight-Dependent Oxidation and Optoelectronic Properties of Defect-Free Macrocyclic Poly(3-hexylthiophene)"

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/15/3/666

The 57th Society of Polymer Science of Japan Hokkaido branch was held on January 23 and Kaneko(B4) won the Best Poster Award!

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The 7th Supporting Technology Exhibition and seminar for Agriculture & Fishery Industries was held on December 6,7. Prof. Tajima and PhD Takahama exhibited NFBC.

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UV-VIS spectrophotometer (UV-VIS) has been installed to our laboratory.

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2022 FUJINOKUNI CNF EXHIBITION was held on November 8. Prof. Tajima exhibited NFBC at the academic booth.

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The results of our joint research with Dr. Yamamoto in the Laboratory of Molecular Integrated Chemistry have been published in Polymers (IF=4.967).cyclic polymers provide better stability to AgNPs than linear polymers. cyclic polymers confer superior stability to AgNPs compared to linear polymers. In addition, the use of cyclic polyethylene glycol The use of cyclic polyethylene glycol has improved the colloidal stability of AgNPs, making it possible to use their high salt resistance for applications in biological systems. The use of cyclic polyethylene glycol has also improved colloidal stability, making it possible to use the high salt resistance in biological systems. "Size Control and Enhanced Stability of Silver Nanoparticles by Cyclic Size Control and Enhanced Stability of Silver Nanoparticles by Cyclic Poly(Ethylene Glycol)"

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.macromol.2c00656

The results of a joint research with the Macromolecular Chemistry Laboratory have been published in Macromolecules (IF= 6.057). Alkali metal carboxylates can be used as simple and efficient catalysts for ring-opening polymerization of epoxides and episulfides Alkali metal carboxylates can be used as simple and efficient catalysts for ring-opening polymerization of epoxides and episulfides to produce poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (TMB) and low dispersibility polyethers and polythioethers. "Polyether/Polythioether Synthesis via Ring-Opening Polymerization of Epoxides and Episulfides Catalyzed by Alkali Metal Carboxylates"

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/14/21/4535

Fibnano Plant (Ebetsu) was featured in Hokkaido newspaper on October 21.

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Hamidah(M2) completed her Master's degree.

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We visited the Fibnano plant of Kusano Sakko Inc. This plant can be produced 200t of NFBC per year.

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The results of joint research with the Macromolecular Chemistry Laboratory, with Dr. Isono as the first author, have been published in Biomacromolecules (IF= 6.978) with Dr. Isono as the first author. with Dr. Chen of National Tsinghua University Dr. Chen from National Tsinghua University and Dr. Borsali from CERMAV. Maltooligosaccharides and solanesols Microphase separation of monodisperse block copoligomers composed of maltooligosaccharides and solanesols has led to the development of a variety of nanoscale materials with carbohydrate microdomains. We have succeeded in constructing a variety of nanoscale morphologies with carbohydrate microdomains by microphase separation of maltooligosaccharides and solanesols. The results of this study are as follows. Nanomaterials with GYR, HPL, and Fddd network morphologies, as well as conventional LAM, HEX, and BCC, can now be accessed. nanomaterials with GYR, HPL, and Fddd network morphologies. "Tailored Solid-State Carbohydrate Nanostructures Based on Star-Shaped Discrete Block Co-Oligomers"

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.biomac.2c00813

The results of a joint research project with the Polymer Chemistry Laboratory have been published in Polymer Chemistry ( IF=5.364). Hyperbranched polyesters (hyperbranched polyesters) by ring-opening alternating copolymerization of A new synthesis method of hyperbranched polyesters (HBPE) by ring-opening alternating copolymerization of epoxides and trimellitic anhydride catalyzed by cesium pivalerate has been developed. The method was developed. By appropriately selecting anhydrides, epoxides, and alcohol initiators, we have developed a new method for the synthesis of HBPEs with different backbone structures. by appropriately selecting anhydrides, epoxides, and alcohol initiators, a variety of HBPEs with different skeletal structures can be obtained. The versatility and simplicity of this method make it suitable for use as an additive or in biomedical applications. The versatility and convenience of the method may lead to a wide range of applications, such as additives and biomedical applications. The versatility and simplicity of HBPEs make them suitable for a wide range of applications including additives and biomedical applications.s "Synthesis of Hyperbranched Polyester via Ring-opening Alternating Copolymerisation of Epoxide with Cyclic Anhydride having a Carboxyl Group"

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2022/PY/D2PY00571A

37th Summer University in Hokkaido was held from 17th to 18th, August. Kugo(D2), Hamidah(M2), Oka(M2), and Tsujisaki(M2) gave poster presentations. Kugo and Tsujisaki got awarded for their poster presentations.

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Hamidah(M2) presented her thesis. Great job!

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29th The Cellulose Society of Japan Annual Meeting was held from 21st to 22nd, July in Kanazawa. Takahama(PhD), Kugo(D2), Hamidah(M2), and Tsujisaki(M2) gave poster presentations.

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New common space is available!

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A paper co-authored by Prof. Isono of laboratory of polymer chemistry has published an article to nanomaterials (MDPI) (IF=5.076). we propose the use of oligosaccharide and oligodimethylsiloxane as hydrophilic and etch-resistant hydrophobic inorganic blocks, respectively, to build up a novel BCP system. These BCPs microphase separated into gyroid, asymmetric lamellar, and symmetric lamellar structures with domain-spacing ranging from 5.0 to 5.9 nm. "Fabrication of Ultrafine, Highly Ordered Nanostructures Using Carbohydrate-Inorganic Hybrid Block Copolymers"

Hamidah (M2) has published an article to Composites Part A : Applied Science and Manufacturing (ELSEVIER) (IF=7.664). Succesful mechanical properties enhancement of neat polycaprolactone, PCL by grafting of monomer ε-CL from hydroxypropyl NFBC (HP-NFBC) as nanofiller. "Improving the mechanical properties of polycaprolactone using functionalized nanofibrillated bacterial cellulose with high dispersibility and long fiber length as a reinforcement material"

A paper co-authored by Prof. Yamamoto of laboratory of chemistry of molecular assemblies was published in Polymers (IF=4.329). "Topology and Sequence-Dependent Micellization and Phase Separation of Pluronic L35, L64, 10R5, and 17R4: Effects of Cyclization and the Chain Ends"

We grow succulents, cacti and pachira in our laboratory.

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A dynamic light scattering photometer (DLS) has been installed to our laboratory.

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4 bachelor students are working hard on experiments every day.

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The Biomolecular Chemistry Laboratory has been launched by Associate Professor Tajima, Associate Professor Tani, and Assistant Professor Fujiwara.

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