Meenal Datta, assistant professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering, has received a Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Young Innovator Award. The award, given by the journal of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), recognizes 12 “rising stars” in the field of biomedical engineering each year.

Datta’s research focuses on deciphering the atypical tumor microenvironment that drives disease progression and treatment resistance in incurable cancers such as brain tumors. She also researches the relationship between immune cells and physical forces in the body, and her lab performs health science in space (e.g., in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station) to benefit patients on earth.

Award-recipients contribute a full-length research article to the journal’s Young Innovators Special Issue and are invited to present their work in a platform session at the annual BMES Conference.

At this year’s conference, held on October 23–26, 2024, in Baltimore, Datta presented her research on the ways in which immune cells and physical forces interact in new 3D cell-based models. Datta’s graduate student Alice Burchett is the first author of the study. Datta also presented on recent work to repurpose cancer therapies to improve the treatment of tuberculosis.

Datta teaches in the Notre Dame Bioengineering Graduate Program, the Materials Science and Engineering doctoral program, and in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (concurrent appointment). She joined the Notre Dame faculty in 2021.

Originally published by Karla Cruise at timelab.nd.edu on October 29, 2024.