Team

Putting decades of experience transforming science and industry to work

Cory Nykiforuk

Director of Manufacture and Process Development

Cory has 24 years of experience in Ag/Biopharma biotechnology, leading the development and commercialization of products in dietary supplements, industrial enzymes, cosmetic ingredients, and biopharmaceuticals. With over 55 patents across 11 families, he has pioneered innovations in recombinant protein production. Cory has held leadership roles at SemBioSys Genetics, Cangene Corporation, Emergent BioSolutions, and as Principal of Viridis Phytosciences, specializing in early product and process development under GMP in plant and mammalian cell systems.

A Closer Look

A Closer Look: Dr. Elizabeth Hood

In a Washington University laboratory, on a project headed by a legendary female biotech pioneer who would eventually wind up in the National Academy of Sciences, Elizabeth Hood found herself among ten über-eager, highly competitive graduate students and post-doc candidates – each with something to prove.

But instead of throwing herself into the dogfight for attention, Elizabeth threw herself into a project that no one else wanted to work on. Little did Elizabeth know that the results of Dr. Mary-Dell Chilton’s and her efforts would revolutionize the biotech industry. Their creation? EHA101, a helper strain derivative of A281 that has been used by thousands of brilliant minds in laboratories around the world ever since.

Countless projects, papers, publications and patents later, Dr. Elizabeth Hood – as she’s been known for decades – remains exclusively focused on solutions which will change the world.

What’s more, she never been more excited about where her journey has led to – being one of GreenLab’s co-founders and working “Zoom-shoulder-to-Zoom-shoulder” with her acclaimed colleague and partner for the past 30 years, Dr. John Howard – of whom, she said, “We’re good buds, and we’ve got each other’s backs."

Together, Dr. Hood, Dr. Howard and the rest of their team are thrilled with manufacturing proteins by putting select enzymes into corn, and turning our nation’s cornfields into our planet’s protein factories – with a patented approach that drastically reduces the need for other expensive and less sustainable processes.

After all these years, her career-long mission hasn’t changed since her days on Dr. Chilton’s team. “I want to solve a global environmental problem. And here at GreenLab, we’ve made a lot of progress, and our goal is clearly within sight.”