Giuseppe Ercoli

The paper shows that biofilm formation during pneumococcal colonization shapes humoral immunity and protection, with the first colonizing strain imprinting immune responses toward biofilm antigens.

The paper shows that accessory capsular genes in Streptococcus pneumoniae enhance fitness, pathogenicity, and immune evasion without capsule switching.

The paper uses RNA sequencing of cerebrospinal fluid from meningitis patients to identify S. pneumoniae virulence factors, finding two genes linked to increased mortality and reduced infection persistence.