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AntonioÌýDel Rio Flores will start as a Patten Faculty FellowÌýfor CUÌýºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ'sÌýDepartment of Chemical and Biological Engineering in Spring 2026 (recruiting graduate students for Fall 2025).Ìý HeÌýearned a doctorate in chemical and biomolecular engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2023 and completed his postdoctoral work at Stanford University as a Stanford Science Fellow under Chaitan Khosla.

Natural products have been used since ancient times to address various health issues, including autoimmune disorders, cancer, bacterial infections and cardiovascular diseases. Microorganisms play a vital role as producers of structurally complex natural products, which are essential for key biological processes such as virulence, biofilm formation, nutrient acquisition and metal scavenging. While the genes and enzymes involved in natural product biosynthesis are often known, a comprehensive understanding of the associated enzymology is still lacking. This gap presents a significant challenge in engineering scaffolds with specific functional groups and developing chemical probes to inhibit their biosynthesis.

Del Rio Laboratory
The Del Rio laboratory, also known as the BioChemEs in Enzymology and Natural Products (BIEN Lab), will focus on three key areas: 1) Discovering and biosynthesizing novel bioactive natural products from Actinobacteria. 2) Creating chemical biology tools to investigate probes that inhibit the biosynthesis of bacterial virulence factors and small molecules. 3) Exploring the mechanistic enzymology of industrially relevant biocatalysts (such as flavins, metalloenzymes, and PLP-dependent enzymes) to develop biocatalytic strategies for producing value-added and pharmacologically important products.

Overall, Del Rio Fores' research spanned in the fields of bioprocess engineering, process control simulations, plant biologyÌýand metabolomics andÌýdeals with studying the biosynthesis and enzymology associated with natural products from environmental bacteria and human pathogens. HisÌýefforts led to advances in understanding the biogenesis of functional groups that are widely utilized for bioorthogonal transformations in chemical biology.Ìý

Del Rio Flores was born in a small town in Mexico named Sahuayo that is famous for their artisan crafts and regional cuisine. HeÌýsubsequently moved to the United States at a young age and grew up in the Bay Area.Ìý

Education

Stanford Science Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford University (2023-2025)
PhD, University of California, Berkeley (2023)
BS,ÌýUniversity of California, Davis (2018)

Awards

• UC Berkeley Benjamin Boussert Memorial AwardÌý(2023)
• Stanford Science Postdoctoral Fellowship (2023)
• Blavatnik Innovation Fellowship (2023)Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý
• UC Berkeley Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award (2022)Ìý
• NSF Research Exchange AwardÌý (2022)Ìý
• ACS Division of Chemical Biology Founder’s Award (2022)Ìý
• UC Berkeley Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award (2021)Ìý
• SIMB Carol D. Litchfield Best Student Poster Presentation Award (2021)
• SIMB Diversity Travel AwardÌý (2021)
• UC Berkeley Graduate Student Instructor Excellence Award (2020)
• UC Berkeley Certificate in Remote Teaching (2020)Ìý
• UC Berkeley Graduate Remote Instruction Innovation Fellowship (2020)Ìý
• UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Fellowship (2018-2020)Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýÌý
• ÌýUC Davis Chemical Engineering Departmental Citation (2018)

Publications

1. Del Rio Flores, A.Ìý& Khosla, C. Characterization of the Flavin-Dependent Monooxygenase Involved in the Biosynthesis of the Nocardiosis-Associated Polyketide.ÌýBiochemistryÌý(2024).
2. Del Rio Flores, A., Zhai, R.^*, Kastner, D.W., Seshadri, K., Yang, S., De Matias, K., Shen, Y., Cai, W., Narayanamoorthy, M., Do, N.B., Xue, Z., Al Marzooqi, D., Kulik, H.J. & Zhang, W. Enzymatic synthesis of azide by a promiscuous N-nitrosylase.ÌýNat. Chem.Ìý(2024).
3. Del Rio Flores, A.,ÌýZhai, R. & Zhang, W. Isonitrile Biosynthesis by Non-Heme Iron(II)-Dependent Oxidases/Decarboxylases.ÌýMethods in Enzymology, 704Ìý(143-172)Ìý(2024).Ìý
4. Del Rio Flores, A., Narayanamoorthy, M., Cai, W., Zhai, R., Yang, S., Shen, Y., Xue, Z., Seshadri, K., De Matias, K., & Zhang, W. Biosynthesis of Isonitrile Lipopeptide Metallophores from Pathogenic Mycobacteria. Biochemistry (2023).
5. Del Rio Flores, A., Kastner, D.W., Du, Y., Narayanamoorthy, M., Shen, Y., Cai, W., Vennelakanti, V., Zill, N.A., Dell, L.B., Kulik, H.K., & Zhang, W. Probing the mechanism of isonitrile formation by a non-heme iron(II)-dependent oxidase/decarboxylase. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2022). (Front Cover)
6. Del Rio Flores, A., Barber, C.C., Narayanamoorthy, M., Gu, D., Shen, Y., & Zhang, W. Understanding and Engineering the Biosynthesis of Isonitrile and Alkyne-Containing Natural Products. Annu. Rev. Chem. Biomol. Eng. (2022).
7. Del Rio Flores, A.*, Twigg, F.F.*, Du, Y., Cai, W., Aguirre, D.Q., Sato, M., Dror, M.J., Narayanamoorthy, M., Geng, J., Zill, N.A., Zhai, R., & Zhang, W. Biosynthesis of Triacsin Featuring an N-hydroxytriazene Pharmacophore. Nat. Chem. Bio (2021).
8. Zhang, H., Goh, N., Wang, J., Pinals, R., Gonzalez-Grandio, E., Demirer, G., Butrus, S., Fakra, S., Del Rio Flores, A., Zhai, R., Zhao, B., Park, S., & Landry, M. Nanoparticle Cellular Internalization is Not Required for RNA Delivery to Mature Plant Leaves. Nat. Nano (2021).
9. Jonnalagadda, R.*, Del Rio Flores, A.*, Cai, W., Mehmood, R., Narayanamoorthy, M., Ren, C., Zaragoza, J.T., Kulik, H.J., Zhang, W., & Drennan, C.L. Biochemical and crystallographic investigations into isonitrile formation by a non-heme iron dependent oxidase/decarboxylase. J. Biol. Chem. 296, 100231 (2021).
10. Li, J.S. Du, Y., Gu, D., Cai, W., Green, A., Ng, S., Leung, A., Del Rio Flores, A., & Zhang, W. Discovery and Biosynthesis of Clostyrylpyrones from the Obligate Anaerobe Clostridium roseum. Org Lett. (2020).
11. Huang, Y.-B., Luo, Y.-J., Del Rio Flores, A., Li, L.-C. & Wang, F. N-aryl pyrrole synthesis from biomass derived furans and arylamine over Lewis acidic Hf doped mesoporous SBA-15 catalyst. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 0–6 (2020)