Deciphering Microbial Chemistry Through Discovery and Engineering
A Lecture by Dr. Antonio Valencia, UCLA Department of Biochemistry
Join the April 2026 installment of the Division of Oral and Systemic Health Sciences' Seminar Series. All are welcome, and no RSVP is required. One unit of continuing education credit is available for attendees!
Dr. Antonio Valencia received his PhD in 2020 from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Rochester. His graduate work with Prof. Rudi Fasan focused on the development of asymmetric biocatalytic transformations and the engineering of hemoproteins as biocatalysts for enantioselective carbene transfer reactions. From 2020–2025, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University in the research group of Prof. Emily P. Balskus. His research in the Balskus lab focused on discovering and characterizing the bacterial enzymes for the human gut microbial conversion of cholesterol to coprostanol, and creating chemical biology tools for manipulating bacterial cholesterol metabolism in the human gut microbiome.
