The team
Scientists. Engineers. Operators.
Founded by researchers from UC Santa Cruz. Incorporated in 2025. Now building the infrastructure to scale.
Jacob Somera
Chief Executive Officer
B.S. Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, UC Santa Cruz
Former ACS student chapter president and bioremediation researcher with the Cal eDNA Lab.
Alexie Barbee
Scientific Lead
M.S. Translational Medicine, UC Berkeley/UCSF; B.S. Bioengineering & Bioinformatics, UCSC
10+ publications and 2 patents from research at UCSC and UCSF.
Nishal Naicker
Chief Operating Officer
B.A., UC Santa Cruz
Previously founded a yerba mate and mushroom energy drink company before joining TerraNova.
Mentors & Advisors
Danielle Desmet
Biotechnology consultant, mentor, and co-founder
Environmental Biology, BS from UC Berkeley; Biology, MS from San Francisco State University
Danielle was introduced to us through SkyDeck and has helped us with strategic R&D planning, and translation of technical data to commercialization milestones. More specifically she has helped us identify and prioritize target products for completing our proof-of-concept by understanding what investors are looking for and the realities faced by startups when scaling.
Doug Erickson
Executive Director at Santa Cruz Works; former investor, sales leader, and founder of technology collectives
Doug was an early supporter of our team, and helped us develop our overall branding and messaging for our pitches. He has also provided countless connections in his network, invited us to his accelerator program, and helped us brainstorm ideas for growing the company.
Benjamin Legum
Director of New Venture Development at UC Santa Cruz; Founder of Muse Engine
MS in Materials Science & Engineering
Ben helped us with our early-stage development by translating our work at UCSC into commercialization — assisting us in navigating intellectual property, market research, and connecting us with accelerators and support programs. He is the Director of New Venture Development at UC Santa Cruz, where he works with innovators to define implementation, adoption, and commercialization pathways for early-stage innovations, and is also a founder of Muse Engine and a partner at Keystone Scientific.
John Matthesen
Ag tech consultant, professor, and CEO at Rodgers Ranch Urban Farm
Psychology & Linguistics, BA from University of Colorado Boulder
John was introduced to us through the Berkeley StEP program and helped us identify ideal customer profiles, go-to-market strategy, and rethink our business model based on customer pain points. He has also lent his expertise in the agriculture industry to discussing different potential feedstocks for us.