Anna Ratliff joined the University of Wisconsin–Madison Cryo-EM Research Center (CEMRC) and the Midwest Center for Cryo-Electron Tomography (MCCET) in October 2025. Before arriving at UW-Madison, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), working in the National Institute of Diabetes Digestion and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) under the mentorship of Dr. Susan Buchanan.
There, her research focused on membrane protein complexes in Gram-negative bacteria, with an emphasis on understanding mechanisms for antibiotic resistance. Her work primarily utilized single–particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), complimented by biochemical assay, mass photometry, site-directed mutagenesis, and protein engineering techniques to determinemembrane protein function.
Anna earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Purdue University in 2019, where she studied under Dr. Christine Hrycyna. Her doctoral research focused on characterizing the structure and mechanism of the methyl-transferase enzyme, Isoprenylcysteine carboxyl methyltransferase (Icmt). She received her B.A. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from Lawrence University in 2014,where she conducted biophysics research with Prof. Douglas Martin on the strength and assembly of microtubes.