Colleen Cutcliffe

Would you take a probiotic if it could lower your blood sugar?

Colleen Cutcliffe had a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and years of experience leading research teams in pharma.

But the moment that pushed her to create Pendulum Therapeutics?

It didn’t happen in a lab, it happened in a hospital room.

When Colleen’s daughter was born eight weeks early, she was immediately rushed to the NICU.

To protect her fragile immune system, doctors gave her multiple rounds of antibiotics.

A routine precaution with consequences Colleen wouldn’t fully grasp until later…

Early antibiotic exposure is linked to obesity, diabetes, ADHD, and autoimmune diseases.

Colleen saw the microbiome as the missing piece in metabolic and gut health... but the industry had been stagnant for over 50 years.

No new species of beneficial bacteria had been introduced into probiotics.

No one had figured out how to commercialize anaerobic strains, which are critical for gut health.

So, she teamed up with two fellow scientists, John and Jim, to change that.

Together, they developed Pendulum Glucose Control.

The first medical probiotic proven to lower blood sugar spikes and reduce A1C in type 2 diabetes patients taking metformin.

The secret? Akkermansia muciniphila… a keystone gut bacteria linked to metabolism and weight management.

Until Pendulum, no company had figured out how to grow it at scale.

Now, Pendulum is disrupting a $3.8T healthcare industry, merging probiotics with pharma-grade efficacy.

Armed with 18 patents and 66 pending, the company has raised $150M from investors like Sequoia, Mayo Clinic, and Khosla Ventures.

Even Halle Berry joined as an investor and Chief Communications Officer, believing in the science and its impact.

Colleen’s mission? To restore gut health and prevent chronic disease, one microbe at a time.