Takashi Daniel Yoshida Kozai, PhD
Takashi Daniel Yoshida Kozai, PhD
Dr. Takashi Daniel Yoshida Kozai is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Kozai has been at Pitt since 2005, holding two positions, namely a Postdoctoral Associate and a Research Assistant Professor (Research Track), all within the Department of Bioengineering.
Dr. Kozai attended the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he obtained two BA degrees: Molecular Cellular Developmental Biology, Magna Cum Laude with distinction, and Biochemistry with distinction. While here, he also served as a Tutor and an Undergraduate Research Assistant. He then attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, obtained both his MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering. During his tenure in Michigan, Dr. Kozai was the Co-founder, Inventor, Manager, and Owner of Fontis Biotechnologies. Dr. Kozai holds 6 awarded patents and 2 pending patents.
Dr. Kozai's focuses on understanding the neurobiology around implantable neural interfaces and developing novel neurotechnologies. His research employs in vivo multi-photon microscopy, functionally evoked electrophysiology, post-mortem multi-channel immunohistochemistry, impedance spectroscopy, device design, and emerging biomaterial tools. Dr. Kozai is currently involved in several projects funded by the NIH NINDS and DARPA:
- Exploring the role of oligodendrocytes and progenitors on chronic brain implants (PI)
- Mechanisms behind electrode induced BBB damage’s impact on neural recording (PI)
- Inhibition of neural electrode-mediated inflammation and neuronal cell death
- Biomimetic surface for neural implants
- Neural I/O Bus (NIOB) using microwire bundles: speech prosthesis