Eshwar is a Professor of Microbiology at Cardiff University and leads research on the pathogenesis, antimicrobial resistance, microbiota interactions and genomics of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholdereria bacteria, which cause problematic lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis. Eshwar is screening a large collection of Burkholderia bacteria for the production of novel antibiotics. This has led to the discovery of the polyketide antibiotic enacyloxin IIa and its unique biosynthetic pathway in Burkholderia ambifaria. Since 2014, Eshwar has led a successful BBSRC-funded interdisciplinary collaboration with the University of Warwick, to characterise novel specialised metabolites produced by Burkholderia bacteria. After characterising enacyloxin, the interdisciplinary teams have followed up with discoveries of several antibiotics, active metabolites and novel biosynthetic mechanisms. Another research focus is industrial microbiology; Pseudomonas and Burkholderia bacteria have high intrinsic antimicrobial resistance and can occasionally overcome preservative formulations, causing contamination in a range of non-sterile industrial products. Eshwar is working with a number of commercial sponsors to understand industrial microbiology problems including improving the reporting and identification of antimicrobial resistant industrial contaminants.
