Groundswell engineers tuberous crops to lock atmospheric carbon into long-lived underground polymers — yielding durable, MRV-grade removal credits and a low-emission biomass for construction.
Two facts the field already accepts: tuberization is a developmental program we can engineer, and lignin is the most recalcitrant carbon pool plants make. Compose them.
A tuber-specific promoter (B33 patatin, sporamin) confines our edits to the storage organ — protecting photosynthesis, root vigor, and yield genes.
Master regulators (MYB46, VND7) activate the secondary cell wall biosynthesis program inside the tuber. AGPase RNAi redirects carbon toward lignin.
One hectare yields a verified durable carbon removal credit and a low-embodied-carbon biomass for panels, pellets, or bricks.
Every plant fixes carbon. The challenge is retaining it. Engineered tubers route photosynthate into recalcitrant polymers — molecules that resist microbial decay on a centuries-long timescale — and store them inside a discrete, harvestable organ.
A durable carbon removal credit, and a low-embodied-carbon biomass for construction. Two revenue streams, no additional land.
The format Frontier ($1B+ AMC), Microsoft (>100 Mt contracted), Google, JPMorgan, and Shopify SCF are paying $200–$500 per tonne to secure — under multi-year offtake.
After credit issuance, the harvest is milled into low-embodied-carbon material that substitutes for cement, gypsum, OSB, and petroleum binders.
Each step answers one biological or commercial question; only then do we scale.
Synthesize tuber-specific MYB46 cassette. Close pre-seed. File ARPA-E, DOE BER, SBIR I.
Transform potato; phenotype 50+ T₀ events; TGA / py-GC/MS validation; ≥ 2× wild-type lignin.
USDA-APHIS RSR + limited field test. Replicate cassette in Beta vulgaris. MRV protocol drafted.
First verified CDR credit issued (CORC100+). First biomass offtake. Series A.
The science we run is the science we trained on. Groundswell is a genetic engineering of the storage organ company — durable carbon credits and a low-emission building biomass from a single rotation.
Plant developmental biologist. Entrepreneur and VC technologist. Leads strategy, capital formation, partnerships, and commercial development.
Plant developmental biologist. Lab co-founder; runs the science — construct design, Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, line characterization, phenotyping protocols.
If you build durable carbon markets, run a plant biotech lab, write checks for climate science, or operate a non-dilutive program for agricultural biotech — we want to hear from you.