Kirsten Meyer

Biography

Dr. Kirsten Meyer studies bacterial extracellular vesicles and the delivery of antimicrobials to counter resistance. Kirsten completed a PhD in Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences from Johns Hopkins University as a Fulbright New Zealand fellow, and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Antimicrobial Discovery Center at Northeastern University and in the Nodwell lab at the University of Toronto. Meyer’s interdisciplinary research bridges biochemistry, microbiology and pharmacology, exploring microbial communication and competition to advance novel antimicrobial strategies.

Research Interests

• Bacterial specialized metabolites
• Antimicrobial resistance and tolerance
• Antimicrobial discovery and development
• Bacterial extracellular vesicles
• Lipid nanoparticle formulations
• Combination antimicrobials
• Microbial interactions
• Microbial biofilms

Education

• 2026 Postdoctoral Fellow, Nodwell Lab, Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto
• 2019 Postdoctoral Fellow, Lewis Lab, Antimicrobial Discovery Center, Northeastern University
• 2016 PhD in Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
• 2009 BBMedSci Honours, Victoria University of Wellington

Awards

• 2025 Career Transition Award, Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium, University of Toronto
• 2021 CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2015 Paul Ehrlich Award, Johns Hopkins University
• 2010 Fulbright Fellowship, New Zealand

Selected/Recent Publications

Please see Dr. Kirsten Meyer’s Google Scholar profile for a current list of peer-reviewed articles.

1. Meyer KJ, Nodwell JR. (2024) Streptomyces extracellular vesicles are a broad and permissive antimicrobial packaging and delivery system. J. Bacteriology 206:e00325 doi.org/10.1128/jb.00325-23
2. Kavianpour A, Ghasempour S, Meyer KJ, Le T, Cai R, Marques PE, Nodwell JR, Freeman S. (2025) Phosphatidylethanolamine is a phagocytic ligand implicated in the binding and removal of apoptotic and bacterial extracellular vesicles. Current Biol 35:4276-84 doi 10.1016/j.cub.2025.07.043
3. Revie NM, Iyer KR, Maxson ME, Zhang J, Yan S, Fernandes CM, Meyer KJ, Chen X, Skulska I, Fogal M, Sanchez H, Hossain S, Li S, Yashiroda Y, Hirano H, Yoshida M, Osada H, Boone C, Shapiro R, Andes DR, Wright GD, Nodwell JR, Del Poeta M, Burke MD, Whitesell L, Robbins N, Cowen LE. (2022) Targeting fungal membrane homeostasis with imidazopyrazoindoles impairs azole resistance and biofilm formation. Nature Communications 13:3634 doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31308-1
4. Espinoza JL, Dupont CL, O’Rourke A, Beyhan S, Morales P, Spoering A, Meyer KJ, Chan AP, Choi Y, Nierman WC, Lewis K, Nelson KE. (2021) Predicting antimicrobial mechanism-of-action from transcriptomes: A generalizable explainable artificial intelligence approach. PLOS Computational Biology 17:e1008857 doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008857
5.  Meyer KJ, Nodwell JR. (2021) Biology and applications of co-produced, synergistic antimicrobials from environmental bacteria. Nature Microbiology 6:1118 doi: 10.1038/s41564-021-00952-6
6.  Meyer KJ, Shapiro TA. (2021) Cytosolic and mitochondrial Hsp90 in cytokinesis, mitochondrial DNA replication, and drug action in Trypanosoma brucei. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 65:e00632 doi: 10.1128/AAC.00632-21
7. Meyer KJ, Taylor HB, Seidel J, Gates M, Lewis K. (2020) Pulse dosing of antibiotic enhances killing of a Staphylococcus aureus biofilm. Frontiers in Microbiology 11:596227 doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.596227
8. Imai Y*, Meyer KJ*, Iinishi A, Favre-Godal Q, Green R, Manuse S, Caboni M, Mori M, Niles S, Ghiglieri M, Honrao C, Ma X, Guo JJ, Makriyannis A, Linaers-Otoya L, Bohringer N, Wuisan Z, Kaur H, Wu R, Mateus A, Typas A, Savitski M, Espinoza JL, O’Rourke A, Nelson KE, Hiller S, Noinaj N, Schaberle T, D’Onofrio A, Lewis K. (2019) A new antibiotic selectively kills Gram-negative pathogens. Nature 576:459-464^adoi:10.1038/s41586-019-1791-1.
9. Zong Y, Fang F, Meyer KJ, Wang L, Ni Z, Gao H, Lewis K, Zhang J, Rao Y. (2019) Gram-scale total synthesis of teixobactin promoting binding mode study and discovery of more potent antibiotics. Nature Communications 10:3268 doi:10.1038/s41467-019-11211-y
10. Meyer KJ, Meyers DJ, Shapiro TA. (2019) Optimal kinetic exposures for classic and candidate antitrypanosomals. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 74:2303 doi: 10.1093/jac/dkz160
11. Meyer KJ, Caton E, Shapiro TA. (2018) Model system identifies kinetic driver of Hsp90 inhibitor activity against African trypanosomes and Plasmodium falciparum. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 62(8): pii: e00056-18 doi: 10.1128/AAC.00056-18