Biography
Colleen Cutcliffe is the co-founder and CEO of Pendulum Therapeutics, a biotech startup in San Francisco. The company’s mission is to create probiotics as effective as prescription drugs, without any side effects. The company’s first offering, Pendulum Glucose Control, is the only probiotic in existence that has lowered blood sugar spikes and A1C levels in a clinical trial – welcome news for the 122 million Americans living with diabetes and prediabetes. Prominent Clinical and Silicon Valley investors have taken notice: Meritech Capital, Sequoia Capital, True Ventures, Khosla Ventures and the Mayo Clinic have led investments totalling $111M in Pendulum Therapeutics. Colleen received a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in biochemistry from Wellesley College. She completed her postdoctoral research at Northwestern Medicine’s Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Colleen lives in Menlo Park, Calif., with her husband, two daughters, and two rambunctious dogs.
Track Chair:
Rita Colwell, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Manoj Dadlani, CosmosID
Understanding mechanism of action and translating microbiome science into commercially viable therapeutics remains the biggest challenge in this emerging field. With that said, pharma and biotech across many different therapeutic indications and modalities are united in this global effort to bring novel microbiome-based therapies and diagnostics into the clinical domain. This session will include some of the most impactful and promising areas of the Microbiome field and panel discussions on the challenges for faster adoption.