The department welcomes talented microbial chemist, Dr. Antonio Tinoco Valencia, who will join the UCLA faculty as an Assistant Professor on July 1, 2025.
At UCLA, the Tinoco group will use an array of tools ranging from synthetic chemistry and chemical biology to bioinformatics and microbiology to uncover new enzymatic functions and microbial metabolites at the intersection between human and microbial biology. His projects will have an impact across human health and environmental concerns. In addition, in collaboration with the Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC), Tinoco Valencia will develop a series of initiatives aimed at increasing the participation of Latinx-identifying students, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, in chemistry and biochemistry, and supporting current Latinx students pursuing degrees and careers in the chemical and biochemical sciences so that they may be successful now and in the future.
“Antonio brings an exciting interdisciplinary approach to research that combines biochemistry, organic chemistry, metabolomics, and studies of the microbiome in his goal of making a real impact on human health,” said chair of the search committee Professor Sarah Tolbert.
“We are excited to welcome Antonio to UCLA,” said Professor Miguel García-Garibay, UCLA’s Dean of Physical Sciences. “He will provide our students with opportunities to explore highly interdisciplinary research in an area of science that begins with small organic molecules and goes into biochemical structures and processes to understand complex interactions between microbes and humans. Antonio has a strong track record of mentoring and the desire to make chemistry and biochemistry more accessible to all UCLA students.”
Born in Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico, Tinoco Valencia immigrated to the United States with his family and was raised in the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles, California. He is the first person in his family to attend and complete a college education. He began his academic journey at East Los Angeles College, participated in the Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA) program, and conducted undergraduate research at the University of Southern California (USC). At USC, Tinoco Valencia worked in the laboratory of Professor Richard L. Brutchey, developing novel methods for synthesizing tungstate- and molybdate-based nanocrystals for applications in energy storage and conversion. He later transferred to California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA), where he graduated cum laude and with Departmental Honors with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in 2015. During his time at Cal State LA, he conducted research under Professor Alison McCurdy, focusing on the synthesis of a photochromic calcium-selective molecular cage to investigate cellular calcium-ion signaling.
“Antonio has demonstrated research and mentorship excellence at all levels of his academic journey,” said Professor Osvaldo Gutierrez, professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry and UCLA’s inaugural CSRC’s Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) STEM Senior Faculty Director. “He is a force of nature and is a role model to many students navigating the California public school system. We are thrilled, and suertudos, to have Dr. Tinoco Valencia at UCLA! In collaboration with the Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC), we are eager to collaborate with him to advance his research, mentorship, outreach, and educational programs!”
Tinoco Valencia continued his research training at the University of Rochester as a NASEM Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Rudi Fasan, earning his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2020. His doctoral research involved engineering hemoprotein-based ‘carbene transferases’ for the abiological enzymatic synthesis of chiral organofluorines, where he combined concepts and tools from the fields of organic chemistry, asymmetric catalysis, protein engineering, and directed evolution to create biocatalysts with new-to-Nature reactivity. He also contributed to a few seminal discoveries in elucidating the mechanism of hemoprotein-catalyzed enantioselective olefin cyclopropanation.
“Dr. Tinoco Valencia’s research program bridges synthetic and biological chemistry to address new and unique directions along the human-microbiome axis,” said Professor Hannah Shafaat. “His chemical expertise coupled with his passion for research and mentoring will certainly enrich our department.”
Currently, Tinoco Valencia is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Emily Balskus at Harvard University, where his research investigates cholesterol metabolism as one avenue of biochemical interactions within the human gut microbiome and their implications for human health. He focused on the discovery and characterization of a novel flavin-dependent metalloenzyme that performs the crucial step in the gut bacterial metabolism of cholesterol to coprostanol, a poorly absorbed-sterol associated with lower serum cholesterol levels in humans. Tinoco Valencia also created a small molecule tool compound to manipulate cholesterol metabolism in genetically-intractable and uncultured gut bacteria. During his time as a postdoctoral fellow, Tinoco Valencia completed intensive training in microbiology and microbial ecology as a William Randolph Hearst Foundation Fellow in the 2022 Microbial Diversity Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA.
Throughout his academic career, Tinoco Valencia has received numerous accolades, including the prestigious NASEM Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship; the Best Graduate Student Oral Presentation in Organic Chemistry Award at the 2018 SACNAS National Diversity in STEM Conference; the University of Rochester Chemistry Outstanding Graduate Student Award; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation Fellowship at the Marine Biological Laboratory; the Harvard Postdoctoral Award for Professional Development; the MIT Chemistry Future Faculty Award; the Stanford.Berkeley.UCSF Next Generation Faculty Award; and the Best Talk in Chemical Biology Award at the 2024 Annual Harvard CCB Research Symposium.
“I am very excited to join the illustrious faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA, and I look forward to contributing to the department’s strengths in organic chemistry, biochemistry, and chemical biology,” Tinoco Valencia said. “The department boasts such a collaborative, innovative, and collegial environment, making it a perfect place for highly interdisciplinary research at the interface of chemistry and biology.”
The Tinoco group will investigate the chemistry encoded by uncharacterized gut microbes, discover bacterial natural products from the oral microbiome and elucidate their ecological functions, and create new platforms for the directed evolution of microbiomes for the biodegradation of environmental pollutants.
Tinoco Valencia has been actively involved with mentoring throughout his time at the University of Rochester and at Harvard. He has helped launch the scientific careers of many undergraduate and graduate mentees, helped run a broad range of STEM mentoring initiatives, and was an active member of the graduate student and postdoctoral communities at his past institutions. Here at UCLA, Tinoco Valencia hopes to build on those experiences to help first-generation students succeed in science.
“I am most excited by the opportunity to mentor trainees at all career stages and educational levels, and to work with the CSRC to continue to open research opportunities for students from backgrounds that have been historically excluded from science, and help UCLA reach their goal of gaining Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) status,” Tinoco Valencia said.
