At LSTM Esther has contributed research centred around antimicrobial resistance, surveillance, transmission, mechanisms, and the optimisation of laboratory methods to study these themes. Within the Tracking Antimicrobial Resistance Across Care Settings in Liverpool project, she has carried out surveillance of ESBL-producing enterobacteriaceae in healthcare settings for 18 months by sampling patients and their surrounding environment. These samples were sequenced and this data will be used to identify where transmission of these bacteria may be happening, as well as provide the genomic landscape of ESBL-E in Liverpool. Esther is also involved in the Defining E. coli Diversity in Complex Samples: Methods for Surveillance & Transmission project that aims to determine the most accurate and cost-effective method at scale to define intraspecies diversity of escherichia coli from complex samples. These methods are necessary to support One Health antimicrobial resistance surveillance and transmission modelling.

Esther’s previous experience at the UK Health Security Agency enabled her to contribute to the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic by testing blood samples for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, generating national sero-prevalence data. She was also a member of the TB drug discovery and evaluation group and carried out a research project exploring the impact of carbon deprivation on antibiotic susceptibility in M. smegmatis.