The people building Carbocene.

Patrick Mellor

Patrick founded Carbocene to develop plant biotechnology for carbon drawdown, durable materials, and resilient ecosystems, while building the scientific and institutional capacity required to carry useful biology into consequential use. He previously co-founded Living Carbon and served as its chief technology officer, leading plant-biotechnology R&D and helping carry engineered trees from plant development and propagation through nursery scaling, field trials, and operational forest projects. His work spans plant engineering, propagation, physiology, field systems, carbon and material flows, and the institutional conditions required to move biological technologies into use. His background also includes paleobiology, philosophy, and the study of living systems across Earth history. At Carbocene, he serves as Executive Director and leads biological programs.

Joseph Haddad

Joseph Haddad is a scientist and recent graduate who supports Carbocene’s laboratory, horticultural, and protocol-development work. He played an integral role in designing and building Carbocene’s Oakland greenhouse.

Joseph also contributes to Open Insulin’s laboratory operations ↗, including microbial cultivation, protein secretion, and protein quantification.

Anthony Tan

Anthony Tan is a plant genetic engineer with a degree in bioengineering from UC Berkeley. His work centers on precise genome engineering and the use of plants as high-yield biochemical production systems. At Carbocene, he contributes to synthetic-biology research aimed at improving sustainable biomass accumulation in engineered trees.

Anthony is also committed to hands-on biology education. He serves as president of Counter Culture Labs, Oakland’s community biology laboratory, where he teaches wet-lab biology.