Patient, kind, and always approachable.
Rami Kanaan, MBiomedSc, is associated with the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand. His academic work at the University of Otago includes a 2022 Master of Biomedical Sciences thesis focused on the application of next-generation sequencing data to help characterise clear cell renal cell carcinoma, a prevalent form of kidney cancer. This research examined the utility of next-generation sequencing in tumor characterisation.
Prior to his master's degree, Kanaan completed a 2018 postgraduate project titled 'Development of a local protocol and method to measure Beta-Cell Function in individuals with Pre-diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes,' supervised by Jeremy Krebs and Patricia Whitfield. More recently, he co-authored the 2024 publication 'A very-low-calorie diet (VLCD) intervention for the management of prediabetes and early Type 2 diabetes mellitus in a multi-ethnic cohort in Aotearoa New Zealand: The PROGRESS NZ feasibility study' in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition (33(2):200-212). In this feasibility study, 15 multi-ethnic New Zealand men with prediabetes or early type 2 diabetes followed a VLCD until 10% weight loss. Nine completers showed mean HbA1c reduction of 4.8 mmol/mol, with five reverting to normoglycaemia; mean weight loss of 12.0 kg; improved whole-body glucose disposal by 1.5 mg/kg FFM/min; and significant improvements in blood pressure and fasting triglycerides. The intervention was highly tolerable and culturally acceptable. Funding was provided by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC 17/542), the New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes (2016 NZSSD NZMS Medical Technology Grant), and the University of Otago Research Grant 2017.
