Olivia is a PhD student in the Molecular Cell Biology & Genetics Program who is doing her graduate work in the Pharmacology & Physiology department. Olivia earned her B.S. in biology at The College of New Jersey in 2019, where she did research on the role of environmental pressure in three spine stickleback morphology. She then spent two years working as a research assistant at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, studying the role of polyamines in the tumor microenvironment.

In the Romano lab, Olivia's project is centered around understanding targeted therapies and mechanisms of resistance in cancers with mutations in the MAPK pathway, specifically, loss of the tumor suppressor NF1. Olivia's work involves in vitro and in vivo models of melanoma and ovarian carcinoma. She is interested in the molecular changes that occur as cancer cells acquire resistance, as well as the role that senescence has in cancer.

Lindsay is a PhD student in the Microbiology and Immunology program completing her research in Dr. Gabriele Romano's lab in the Pharmacology and Physiology department. After completing her bachelor's degree in Biotechnology at Penn State, she joined Drexel's College of Medicine to study onco-immunology in Dr. Romano's lab. Currently, she is researching the interplay between drug resistance and melanoma in patients with HIV and how a "cold" tumor microenvironment contribute to cancer drug resistance.

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.