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)
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
Dr. Kozai is chairing the 2020 Gordon Research Conference on Neuroelectronic Interfaces, and serves on the Editorial Board of Frontiers in Neuroscience (Neural Technology) and Journal of Neural Engineering. He is a member of the Biomedical Engineering Society and the Society for Neuroscience. He serves as a reviewer for numerous journals, including: Biomaterials, Acta Biomateriala, and Advanced Materials.
View a list of Dr. Kozai’s publications here.