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Kevin Barnett
August 5, 2019

CBE spinoff wins at biotech world congress startup competition

Written By: Sam Million-Weaver

Pyran, a spinoff company based on technology developed in the laboratory of George Huber, the Richard L. Antoine Professor of chemical and biological engineering, earned top honors in the Start Up Stadium Competition at the 2019 BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology, held July 8-11, in Des Moines, Iowa. The 2019 event drew 928 attendees from 612 companies, spanning 34 countries and 42 U.S. states, and Pyran emerged as a winner in the competition from a field of more than 30 firms. Developed by co-founder Kevin Barnett during his time as a PhD student in Huber’s lab, Pyran’s low-cost reaction technology produces a chemical currently used to make everyday paints and plastics, 1,5-pentanediol, from renewable wood and crop wastes.


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