Sophia Theodossiou

Bio

Dr. Sophia Theodossiou joined Boise State University in July 2022 as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering and the director of the Theodossiou Lab. The Theodossiou Lab’s overall research objective is to understand how mechanical and biochemical signals result in musculoskeletal tissue formation during normal development, with the goal of using developmentally-inspired cues to regenerate these tissues following injury or disease. The Theodossiou Lab employs several interdisciplinary approaches, including animal and human cellular models, custom biomaterial scaffolds, and 3D printing, to explore how musculoskeletal tissues form from cells, with a focus on muscles and tendons.

Dr. Theodossiou earned her B.A. (2012) in Anthropology and Human Biology from Northwestern University, and her Ph.D. (2020) in Biological Engineering from the University of Idaho, where she was named the Outstanding Ph.D. Graduate in the College of Engineering. Dr. Theodossiou completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the Tufts University Department of Biomedical Engineering in Boston, Massachusetts. As a postdoctoral fellow, she was awarded the NIH Organ Design and Engineering Training Program (ODET) and Institutional Research and Career Development Award (IRACDA) fellowships to bring innovative research and teaching methods into the engineering lab and classroom.

• ME 477/577 Biomaterials

Research

• Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering
• Stem Cell Mechanobiology
• Natural and Synthetic Biomaterials
• 3D in vitro Models of Musculoskeletal Development and Disease
• 3D Printing and Bioprinting

Publications

Visit Sophia Theodossiou’s Google Scholar profile.

Yuen JSK Jr, Stout AJ, Kawecki NS, Letcher SM, Theodossiou SK, Cohen JM, Barrick BM, Saad MK, Rubio NR, Pietropinto JA, DiCindio H, Zhang SW, Rowat AC, Kaplan DL. Perspectives on scaling production of adipose tissue for food applications. Biomaterials 280 (2022), 121273.

Theodossiou SK, Murray JB, Hold LA, Courtright JM, Carper AM, Schiele NR. Akt signaling is activated by TGFβ2 and impacts tenogenic induction of mesenchymal stem cells. Stem Cell Research and Therapy 12:1 (2021), 1-12.

Theodossiou SK, Pancheri NM, Martes AC, Bozeman AL, Brumley MR, Raveling AR, Courtright JM, Schiele NR. Neonatal Spinal Cord Transection Decreases Hindlimb Weight-Bearing and Affects Mechanical Development of Rat Achilles and Tail Tendons. ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering 143:6 (2021), 061012.

Giduthuri AT, Theodossiou SK, Schiele NR, Srivastava S. Dielectrophoretic Characterization of Tenogenically Differentiating Mesenchymal Stem Cells. Biosensors 11 (2021), 50.

Giduthuri AT, Theodossiou SK, Schiele NR, Srivastava S. Dielectrophoresis as a tool for electrophysiological characterization of stem cells. Biophysics Reviews 1:1 (2020), 011304.

Conley Natividad G, Theodossiou SK, Schiele NR, Tipton E, Murdoch G, Tanner B, Mortazavi M, Potirniche G, Martin B. Ex Vivo Quantification of Ovine Pia Arachnoid Complex Biomechanical Properties and Morphology. Fluids and Barriers of the CNS 17:1 (2020), 1-12.

Theodossiou SK, Murray JB, Schiele NR. Cell-cell junctions in developing and adult tendons. Tissue Barriers 8:1 (2020) 1695491.

Theodossiou SK, Schiele NR. Models of tendon development and injury. BMC Biomedical Engineering 1 (2019) 32.

Theodossiou SK, Bozeman A, Burgett N, Brumley MR, Swann H, Raveling AR, Becker JJ, Schiele NR. Onset of neonatal locomotor behavior and the mechanical development of Achilles and tail tendons. Journal of Biomechanics 96 (2019),109354.

Theodossiou SK, Tokle J, Schiele NR. TGFβ2-induced tenogenesis impacts cadherin and connexin cell-cell junction proteins in mesenchymal stem cells. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 508:3 (2018) 889-893.

*Raveling AR, *Theodossiou SK, Schiele NR. A 3D printed bioreactor for investigating mechanobiology and soft tissue mechanics. MethodsX 5 (2018) 924-932. *shared lead authorship