When Meenal Datta, Jane Schoelch DeFlorio Collegiate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, submitted a proposal with Irish colleagues David Hoey (Trinity College Dublin) and Despina Bazou (Maynooth University) for the Naughton Faculty Research Accelerator Grant Program, she knew someone from Notre Dame would need to be on the ground in Ireland to help support the work. Luckily, she had just the graduate student for the job: Bianca Batista.
“Bianca is a natural fit for this project given her developing understanding of and deep enthusiasm for mechanobiology in the context of cancer,” Prof. Datta shares. As an undergraduate at Notre Dame, Bianca was an accomplished research assistant in Prof. Datta’s TIME Lab and graduated with two co-authorships on peer-reviewed publications in iScience and PNAS. She learned techniques to test the impact of physical forces on cells found in and around tumors, including immune and supportive stromal cells found in brain and breast cancers. “Now, as a graduate student, she has expanded this purview to study additional cell types in the bone marrow microenvironment, a very unique tissue niche. Bianca is tenacious and undeterred by experimental setbacks, so she was my first choice to work on this project.”
The project pulls together the disciplines of the three principal investigators (PIs) involved: Prof. Datta specializes in the mechanobiology of solid tumors; Prof. Hoey is an expert in mechanobiology, specifically in the context of bone; and Prof. Bazou’s research area focuses on hematological malignancies. For Prof. Datta, their collaboration is the key to the success of the project. “The more ideas that are represented, the more likely we are to achieve impactful science, such as improving our understanding of and treatments for cancer.” It is through this international collaboration, she says, that experts can bring alternative and complementary perspectives to research, often resulting in groundbreaking results.
In describing the scope of the project, Bianca shares, “The research aims to better understand the mechanical microenvironment within the bone marrow and what role that plays in the context of progression to multiple myeloma, otherwise known as the most common or serious type of plasma cell dyscrasia."
Being a part of the project was an exciting opportunity for Bianca for a few reasons. Firstly, although she’d studied abroad in London as an undergraduate, she’d never been to Ireland before. While the project involves equal contribution from the PIs, it was decided among the group that Bianca would spend her six months in Ireland primarily at Trinity with Prof. Hoey.
The Notre Dame Dublin team helped get her settled into the new city. “Even before I even stepped foot in Dublin, I had been in contact with Maggie [Arriola Fagan] and Robert [Black], and they've just been super helpful in guiding me through the logistics and making sure that I was able to find accommodation.” She adds, “The Notre Dame community in Dublin is strong, and I think that’s really helped ease the move here.”
Secondly, this project was a new realm of research for her. Her focus as an undergraduate researcher in Prof. Datta’s lab was on cancer biology, specifically the solid tumor mechanical stress area of things. “This feels like more of a shift into some really hardcore bioengineering,” she says. “So it's fairly new and exciting, and I know that by the end of my time in Dublin, I will have learned so many new techniques, grown as a scientist, and ultimately have a lot to bring back to my lab at Notre Dame.”
It also gave Bianca the opportunity for a unique Ph.D. program experience. “Typically, as a graduate student, you work with the same PI in the same lab for five or so years,” she shares. “I've been really blessed to have an unorthodox experience where I’m spending some time getting comfortable in the lab with my PI at Notre Dame, while also getting the chance to experience a different mentoring style, a different lab setup, and a different lab dynamic at Trinity.” She’s enjoyed the privilege of having two great mentors in Professors Datta and Hoey.
She’s also been able to encounter a different lab environment at Trinity, which has been an adjustment but one she’s grown to appreciate. “Instead of each lab having their own designated space, there's one giant shared lab space, and they encourage people from different labs to mix with others.” As a result, she shares, there’s a lot of unexpected collaboration and interaction between researchers.
What ultimately makes Trinity an excellent location and partner for research is the caliber of their lab facilities, specifically when it comes to bioengineering. “Things like 3D printing, bioprinters—all this really awesome infrastructure to be able to fabricate or manufacture anything you want, whether that be some sort of mechanical apparatus, a synthetic model, or even biomaterials. This is the perfect place to be working on developing a biomimetic model of the bone marrow.” This is one of the reasons the Naughton Fellowships Faculty Research Accelerator Grant Program exists—to allow researchers from Notre Dame and five partner universities in Ireland to explore and benefit from what each university has to offer.
But these six months working at Trinity won’t just result in new technical skills for Bianca. She is also honing her skills in other areas, such as cultural competence and emotional intelligence, that come from being an international student working in a highly international environment like Trinity’s engineering department. “Although we are in Ireland, I would say most of the department here is primarily international. So you have people from a bunch of different countries all working together on the same thing. I think that requires a different level of communication, and that’s something that makes you a better scientist.”
When she returns to campus in the spring, Bianca hopes to not only continue progressing the research project with Prof. Datta and ideally present some of it, but also share the wider lessons she’s learned from her experience with others. “As I progress in the Ph.D., I'm excited to be more of a mentor and be able to share what I've learned with the students that will come in in cohorts after me.” She’s aware that the Naughton Faculty Research Accelerator Program has granted her a unique opportunity as a first-year Ph.D. student—and she doesn’t plan on wasting an ounce of it.
Originally published by at dublin.nd.edu on August 24, 2026.