Katya A. D’Costa's research while affiliated with University of Toronto and other places

... To understand the effects of physical forces on cell behavior, bioreactors have been used to recapitulate specific mechanical cues outside of the body with the aim of unraveling their role in cell mechanobiology [7][8][9][10][11][12]. Bioreactors with finely tuned control of the state of deformation and its dynamics have also been utilized successfully to reveal the effects of complex stretch loading profiles in the mechanobiology of biological tissues in vitro [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. These early bioreactors already pointed out the need to design in vitro systems that do not substantially alter the cellular phenotype in a way that would confound the outcome of mechanobiological studies. ...

... Although the endothelium exhibits marked phenotypic heterogeneity between vascular beds, its fundamental functions are to maintain blood in a fluid state and to confine its flow to the boundaries of the vasculature 1 . Endothelial cells (ECs) are consequently indispensable for vascular tissue engineering, enabling the vascularization and sustained perfusion of engineered tissues 2 , as well as the endothelialization and prolonged patency of smalldiameter vascular prostheses 3 . Despite being the fundamental building block for vascular tissue engineering, a clinically viable source of endothelium has continued to elude the field 4 . ...