Luis Valencia is the co-founder and CEO of AlkaLi Labs, a biomining company developing biosorbents to extract valuable metals from low-grade waste streams. Valencia earned a B.S. in biochemistry from University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from UC Berkeley in the Keasling Lab. His career focus has been on protein and metabolic engineering for industrial biosynthesis. Valencia is passionate about applying biochemistry to challenges where conventional chemical methods fall short.
AlkaLi Labs is developing biosorbents that extract critical minerals from abundant industrial waste streams. This technology overcomes key limitations of conventional mining from low-grade resources because it is tolerant to contaminants and effective at low concentrations. Further, this breakthrough unlocks significant domestic mineral resources, positioning the United States for supply chain independence.