In recent years, Ferrieri has focused her research principally on group B Streptococcus, antigens involved in immunity, and vaccine development aimed at prevention of group B Streptococcus infection in newborns. Group B strep, which babies can acquire as they pass through the maternal birth canal, puts them at risk for sepsis and meningitis and can be fatal. Ferrieri's research group collaborated in a five-year, NIH funded study with colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh and Baylor College of Medicine that involved giving experimental group B strep vaccine to non-pregnant women. Her laboratory was responsible for molecular characterization of the group B strep strains of study subjects in advance of their receiving the vaccine and then at specific intervals during the course of the study. Ferrieri has been investigating protective protein antigens from pneumococcus in otitis media found in the chinchilla, whose ear anatomy mimics closely that of the human ear. The research is designed to contribute to the goal of developing a vaccine that would prevent middle-ear and other pneumococcal infections in young children. Ferrieri and her collaborators are working to extend their findings at the molecular level to shed light on the individual protein-antigen components that could serve as the basis for a universally protective vaccine.
