Backyard Brains goes for $500K NIH grant, grows sales

Backyard Brains spent its first year and change establishing its product — a kit that shows how the brain works for kids — and has high hopes for 2011.The Ann Arbor-based startup is applying for a $500,000 National Institute of Health grant to help fund its product research and promotion. Backyard Brains will know the outcome of its application by January; if successful, it expects to double staffing from two to four people.”If that gets funded it will dramatically grow our business,” says Greg Gage, CEO of Backyard Brains.Gage and Tim Marzullo, both neuroscientists, started Backyard Brains as a way to provide a cost-effective product that teaches grade-school students the workings of neurons in the brain. So far it has sold 152 kits to four high schools. It’s working to expand its market reach by marketing the kits directly to teachers, university professors, and summer camps.Source: Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo, co-founders of Backyard BrainsWriter: Jon Zemke