From 1983 to 2008, Meyer carried out research and taught as professor of pharmacology at the Biozentrum University of Basel, where he also acted as Chairman.

[1] The research of Urs A. Meyer explored the pharmacogenomic and environmental mechanisms that cause interindividual variability in drug response.

[2] In his postdoctoral work, he described the molecular defect in heme synthesis causing hepatic porphyrias.

[3] He and his coworkers later made the first transgenic mouse model of this disease[4] and elucidated the drug sensitivity of patients with porphyria.

His team identified the genes and mutations for the enzyme cytochrome P450 CYP2D6[6] and for N-acetyltransferase 2[7] and developed the first pharmacogenetic DNA tests.