Binh is a PhD student in the Pharmacology & Physiology program. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, in 2011 with a BA in biological sciences and a minor in theater arts. She then worked at several institutions like MGH, UMass Med and Charles River Discovery before joining Synlogic, where she contributed to the preclinical pharmacology work for three investigational new drug applications, with two still in clinical trials. After that experience, she moved on to Unum Therapeutics to work on T cell therapies for multiple myeloma and HER2 targeting and TNBC therapies. Before joining Drexel, she worked at Senda Biosciences to start their pr-clinical operations and work on LNP/plant-derived vesicle/bacterial minicell drug delivery, and then she moved to Ensoma to work on adenovirus-delivered in vivo gene therapies.

Binh currently works on a project to exploit biomimetic nanoparticle-mediated delivery of immunomodulating nucleic acids as a strategy to anticipate melanoma drug resistance.

Dr. Urquiza is a postdoctoral researcher in the Romano lab. He earned his PhD in molecular biology and biomedicine from BioGUNE (Spain) in 2018, focusing on developing treatments for congenital erythropoietic porphyria (CEP) and drug discovery for rare diseases. An expert in high-throughput drug screening, he holds two international patents, has first-author publications in Science Translational Medicine and participated in the recognition of Ciclopirox for CEP treatment by the EMA and FDA.

His career includes research visits at the University of Medicine in Bordeaux in France and a postdoctoral position at Rutgers University, where he studied mitochondrial inorganic polyphosphate roles in aging and neurodegenerative diseases. In 2021, he joined the University of Almería and Torrecardenas University Hospital in Spain to conduct pioneering research on colorectal cancer, developing a predictive diagnostic model for personalized medicine using NMR and omics technologies.

In Dr. Romano’s lab, Dr. Urquiza researches drug resistance in melanoma among HIV patients to discover new treatment strategies, demonstrating his commitment to advancing therapeutic options and improving clinical outcomes for patients with complex diseases.

Lynn Baker is a PhD student in the Pharmacology & Physiology program and is a member of Dr. Gabe Romano’s lab at Drexel University College of Medicine. Lynn earned her BS in neuroscience at Temple University in 2015 and her MS in drug discovery and development at Drexel in 2020. Before joining the program, she worked at a small clinical research organization as a research and development senior scientist in the biophysical department for over five years.

In the Romano Lab, Lynn’s main project uses both in vitro and in vivo models to investigate how brain tissue remodeling associated with chronic HIV infection contributes to increased melanoma brain metastasis in people living with HIV. She is particularly interested in how the brain immune microenvironment influences this process

Olivia completed her PhD in the Molecular Cell Biology & Genetics program at Drexel University College of Medicine in 2026. She earned her BS in Biology from The College of New Jersey before joining the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, where she investigated the role of polyamines in the tumor microenvironment.

In the Romano Lab, Olivia investigated strategies to enhance the efficacy of MAPK-targeted therapies through rational immunotherapy combinations. Her doctoral research identified PSGL1 as a promising immunotherapeutic target that synergizes with BRAF/MEK inhibition to enhance T-cell-mediated anti-tumor responses in melanoma, providing a potential strategy to improve the durability of targeted therapy. She also contributed to studies examining therapeutic vulnerabilities associated with loss of the tumor suppressor NF1 in melanoma and ovarian cancer using both in vitro and in vivo models.

Lindsay completed her PhD in the Microbiology & Immunology program at Drexel University College of Medicine in 2026. She earned her bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from Penn State before joining the Romano Lab to investigate cancer immunology and therapeutic resistance.

During her doctoral research, Lindsay established preclinical models of HIV-associated melanoma and led studies defining the immune landscape of melanoma in people living with HIV. Her work demonstrated that patients with HIV experience inferior outcomes following immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy and identified tumor-associated T-cell dysfunction and enrichment of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) as key features of the HIV-associated tumor microenvironment. These findings provide a mechanistic framework for developing immunotherapeutic strategies to improve cancer outcomes in people living with HIV.

Dr. Yoon is a visiting professor in Dr. Romano’s lab. She received her MS in Pharmacology from the College of Medicine at Jeonbuk National University and a BA in Pharmacy from SungKyunKwan University, South Korea. In 2011, Dr. Yoon completed her PharmD from Howard University and has been a professor in the College of Pharmacy at Gyeongsang National University, South Korea since 2012.

Her research interests are at the intersection of molecular mechanisms of ER stress-mediated response and cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer. She is currently developing cell lines and animal models to identify novel biomarkers that can aid in the treatment of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer patients.

Pearl Diabene is an undergraduate student and a biological sciences major on the pre-med track at Drexel University. She first joined the Romano Lab in June 2022 as a student in the STAR (Students Tackling Advanced Research) Scholars program. Her STAR Scholars project focused on Gateway Cloning the Firefly Luc2 gene into lentiviral destination vectors. Pearl has continued to work in the lab as a research assistant exploring her interest in the field of oncology while supporting the team's projects.