Yekaterina (Katy) Tiper is a summer student at Smart & Biggar’s Toronto office.
She is a JD candidate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and holds a PhD in Bimedical Engineering from the University of Toronto. Her doctoral research focused on characterizing engineered skeletal muscle microtissues for disease modelling, including skeletal myopathies and work examining metabolic disease.
During her doctoral studies, she collaborated with industry partners, which sparked her interest in IP law as a vehicle to support the commercialization of scientific innovation.
She is excited to learn from Smart & Biggar’s leading practitioners in IP and IP litigation while working within a collaborative, mentorship-driven environment.
Qualifications
- News
- Speaking
- In the Media
- Poster, Muscle Health Awareness Day 2024
- Poster, Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research Retreat 2023
- Poster, International Research Group on Biochemistry of Exercise Conference 2022
- Poster, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Conference 2022
Publications
- Lad H, Tiper Y (co-first author), Esteban EM, Singh MK, Mahoudeau A, Xie Z, et al. Complement-independent pathogenic influences of anti-HMGCR+ and anti-SRP+ immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy autoantibodies on engineered muscle function. Skelet Muscle 16:8, 2025. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13395-025-00400-7.
- Tiper Y, Xie Z, Hofemeier A, Lad H, Luber M, Krawetz R, et al. Optimizing electrical field stimulation parameters reveals the maximum contractile function of human skeletal muscle microtissues. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 328: C1160–C1176, 2025. doi: 10.1152/ajpcell.00308.2024.
- Ebrahimi M, Lad H, Fusto A, Tiper Y, Datye A, Nguyen CT, et al. De novo revertant fiber formation and therapy testing in a 3D culture model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy skeletal muscle. Acta Biomater 132: 227–244, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2021.05.020.
- Tiper Y (co-first author), Tinline-Goodfellow CT, Gilbert PM, Moore DR. Stable isotope tracer captures the anabolic response of human skeletal muscle microtissues undetected by puromycin labeling. bioRxiv, 2025. doi: 10.1101/2025.09.12.675841. [Pre-print]
- Tiper Y, Ni J, Krawetz R, Gilbert PM. Elevated GLUT4 levels in human skeletal muscle microtissues is accompanied by functional insulin dependence. Biomed Eng Online, 2025. doi: 10.1101/2025.04.24.650438. [Submitted]