She earned her B.S. in Bioengineering and B.A. in Molecular & Cell Biology at UC Berkeley and went on to earn her Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the University of Washington in the lab of Suzie H. Pun, where she engineered polymeric nanoparticles grafted with peptides for the delivery of plasmid DNA into the central nervous system. In her postdoctoral research at MIT in the laboratory of Sangeeta N. Bhatia, she built several nanomaterial scaffolds for application to cancer, bacterial infections, and traumatic brain injury. In her own lab, Ester is interested in engineering nanoscale tools, diagnostics, and treatments for diseases that affect the central nervous system. Integral to her research program is the creation of an inclusive research community through the support and mentorship of trainees.