Andrew Barnes was born in the northern suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. His father was a chemical engineer at Abbott Laboratories, which inspired him to pursue a chemical engineering degree from Purdue University. While studying, he became interested in the pharmaceutical industry. After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in 1975, he worked as an engineer for four years at GD Searle in Illinois. Realizing he did not want to pursue a career as a chemical engineer, Barnes returned to school, attending Stanford University for his master’s in business administration. Being in California, Barnes began taking an interest in the biotechnology companies springing up across the state. After graduating, he interviewed with some biotech companies, such as Applied Biosystems and Amgen, but decided to stay at Stanford to work in the Technology Licensing Office on a one-year term. There, he worked on the Cohen-Boyer patent, considered to be one of the first biotech patents. After the end of his one-year term at Stanford, Barnes worked briefly at the Zymos Corporation. Barnes was then hired at Mycogen, which was developing a fungal alternative to chemical pesticides. In the late nineties, Mycogen was acquired by Dow Chemical and Barnes was offered a new position if he relocated to Indiana, though he left the company, not wanting to move. He was then contacted about a new company named Myelos, a biotech company which produced a peptide with neurotrophic properties. Barnes worked at Myelos until 1998 or 1999, after which he retired.