Her research work mainly refers to spirochetes and chlamydiae.
She has studied the interaction between Kupffer cells and spirochetes, with both in vivo and in vitro models.
The ability of several cathelicidins to kill, in vitro, borreliae, leptospirae and Treponema pallidum has been investigated and a newly identified antigen (TprI) belonging to the Tprs family has been cloned and expressed.
She has demonstrated that surface proteins in Borrelia anserina, belonging to vmp family, are the principal pathogenicity determinants in experimental infections in chicks.
She has studied the interaction between Kupffer cells and Chlamydia pneumoniae, in a mouse experimental infection model.
She has studied the epidemiology of the main bacterial sexually transmitted diseases in Italy and the role of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection in inducing a dyslipidemic effect in a mouse experimental model.
Her interests are also focused on laboratory diagnosis of several infections: in particular, infections due to spirochetes, sexually transmitted diseases and maternal-foetal infections.
She was selected as a reviewer for many Journals, including Clinical Microbiology Infection, Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Plos One, Clinical and Vaccine Immunology and Journal of Medical Microbiology.
She is in the Editorial Board of Plos One and Case Reports in Infectious Diseases.
Her work resulted in 89 research articles, 90 contributes in national scientific meetings, and 100 contributes in international meetings.
