About
An idea, taking root
An idea,
taking root.
TerraNova began with a simple observation — that the planet's most powerful carbon capture machine is also its quietest. We're working to give it an upgrade.
TerraNova began with a simple observation — that the planet's most powerful carbon capture machine is also its quietest. We're working to give it an upgrade.
Forest light study · Northern temperate zone
A single mature oak can absorb forty-eight pounds of CO₂ a year. Multiplied across a forest, that's astonishing. Multiplied across the planet, still not enough.
Modern biotechnology can edit, with precision, the same genes that nature has been refining for 380 million years. We saw an opportunity to collaborate with that work — not replace it.
We don't see biotech as a replacement for ecology. We see it as a tool to amplify what trees already do brilliantly.
We're a research-stage initiative. We publish our reasoning, our limitations, and our questions. Transparency builds trust — especially in a field that has earned skepticism.
Climate change is global. Forests are local. Our work has to honor both — engineered for impact, deployed with the consent and partnership of the communities they grow in.
Boreal canopy
Sapling, first year
Forest floor · Pacific NW
Mountain forest at dawn
TerraNova is currently a small research team working at the intersection of plant biology, gene editing, and climate science. We are based remotely, with collaborators across three continents.
We're deliberately quiet about who we are right now — the science deserves to lead the conversation, not us. Once we're in a lab and producing results, we'll introduce the people behind this work in full.
What we will say: every person on this team got here from a different field, and every person on this team is here because they couldn't stop thinking about this problem.
"We're not trying to invent a new tree. We're trying to give an old idea — the forest as carbon sink — the tools of a new century."
If that resonates, we'd love to hear from you. The pages that follow lay out the research, the ask, and how to get in touch.