Dr. Kanai is a tenured Professor of Medicine in the Renal Electrolyte Division and the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at the University of Pittsburgh, and the ICS Scientific Committee’s Pure and Applied Science Representative. As an ICS member since 2003, he has participated in 19 of the last 22 meetings, spoke at and chaired scientific sessions, and organized workshops and round tables.
His research focuses on the pharmacology and physiology of the lower urinary tract and pelvic floor and has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Defense, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and the Pharmaceutical Industry. He has served as a permanent member of the NIH Urologic and Kidney Development and Genitourinary study section and has over 200 publications with an h-index of 37 based on Web of Science indexing.
Presently, he has three NIH grants investigating bladder and prostate dysfunctions due to spinal cord injury, chemical cystitis, benign prostatic hyperplasia/enlargement, and irradiation-induced bladder damage and their treatment using new therapeutic approaches. He has utilized mitochondrial targeting of free radical scavengers to protect the bladder from developing radiation cystitis which culminated in the ASPET-Astellas award in translational pharmacology and two United States Patents. He has also demonstrated the therapeutic benefits of soluble guanylate cyclase activators in clearing senescent cells that develop following irradiation of prostate tumors, preventing tumor reemergence and development of radiation cystitis which has resulted in a United States provisional patent.