Vik Meadows
Appointment Details
- Priority Area: Advancing STEM Diversity
- Disciplines: Pathology and Physiology, gut-liver axis, microbiome, liver disease
- Mentors: Dr. Nan Gao
- Mentors' Disciplines: Cell Biology, paneth cell, host microbe interaction, intestinal inflammation
- School: New Jersey Medical School
- Department: Pharmacology, Physiology, and Neuroscience
About Vik Meadows
Following your gut is great advice, especially when it helps you uncover how bacteria can impact liver disease. The gut and liver are physically connected by two routes: the portal vein circulates nutrients absorbed in the gut to the liver and the bile duct secretes proteins, hormones, and bile acids made in the liver into the small intestine. As a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Meadows will study how mucolytic bacteria, like Ruminococcus gnavus, can impact gut function in health and disease. Her studies will increase our knowledge of the impact of individual bacteria on the host while allowing us to understand the inter-organ communication through the gut-liver axis.
Dr. Meadows is passionate about science education and communication. She co-hosts the Behind our Science podcast, which makes scientific research more accessible, and has recently been funded by the Rutgers IRACDA-INSPIRE fellowship, which prepares postdocs for success in research and scientific teaching. As a Latina in STEM, Dr. Meadows is aware of the hostile environment that many researchers from minoritized backgrounds face. To combat this systemic oppression and build community, she co-founded the Rutgers University Latin@/Hispanic (RU-LAG) with Dr. Clara Berdasco to connect graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff. Dr. Meadows received her PhD in 2022 from Indiana University School of Medicine on her work analyzing cellular crosstalk of mast cells and bile ducts in cholestatic liver disease and earned a MS in 2017 from Oregon Health & Science University where she studied Bacillus subtilis oxidative stress response. Her experiences studying whole organs and bacteria will allow Dr. Meadows to solidify her research program to holistically assess how our gut-liver axis can alter overall host health.