Preeti Verma joined the University of Wisconsin–Madison Cryo-EM Research Center (CEMRC) and the Midwest Center for Cryo-Electron Tomography (MCCET) in December 2024. Prior to this, she was a Research Scientist at the University of Virginia (UVA), where she started as a Research Associate in the lab of HHMI Investigator and Prof. Jochen Zimmer, at the Department of Biological Physics and Molecular Physiology. During her tenure at UVA, she investigated the structural-functional insights into cellulose biosynthesis in bacteria and plants, with a particular focus on the Escherichia coli mega-dalton cellulose synthase macrocomplex. Her research utilized cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) in combination with protein engineering and biochemistry to explore protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions within the complex, providing significant insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying phosphoethanolamine modified cellulose synthesis and secretion in E. coli.
She received her Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, India, in 2017. Her doctoral research focused on the biochemical and biophysical characterization of nucleotide metabolic pathway enzymes from pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus lugdunensis, plant pathogen Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, and the medicinal plant Putranjiva roxburghii.