A company built on asking questions.

About

Biomechanical engineer Dr. Michael Bottlang and board-certified trauma surgeon Dr. Steve Madey founded Nuro on asking hard questions and finding truths to revolutionize brain protection. Because as medical professionals dedicated to fixing the human body, when it comes to brain injury, they realized the only effective treatment is prevention.

How can helmets do a lot better at protecting the brain, not just the skull?

While helmets have always focused on preventing skull fractures from direct impact, Madey and Bottlang saw that the research was crystal clear: Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are most often caused by torque to the brain, the kind of force that traditional foam helmets are not designed to absorb.

Protecting the skull is relatively easy. Even helmets from the early 1900s can still pass today’s safety standards for direct impact. And yet they do nothing to protect the from brain torque. Just like most every helmet out there for cycling, snow sports and construction.

“You can pretend to protect your brain, or you can spend more money and get closer to actually doing it.”

Bruce Barcott, Bicycling Magazine

3000

Helmets Tested

The number of helmets we've smashed and crashed over our 8 years of reasearch.

30 Years

Combined years of experience in the field.

Does it take a catastrophic accident to cause a catastrophic injury?

Most brain injuries involve an average “trip and fall” kind of accident. Why? When we fall, our heads often make impact at an oblique angle, causing rotation. When we’re hit by a beam swinging on a crane or something like that, it’s the same thing. Real-world accidents almost always involve brain torque. The damage happens when the brain spins inside the skull – even just a little bit. It doesn’t have to be a dramatic accident at all.

“If a helmet does not include technology that measurably and reliably works to mitigate brain torque, it is basically ineffective against brain injury. Nuro is founded on this truth.”

– Dr. Michael Bottlang, Nuro Co-Founder

Why don’t most helmets protect against the leading cause of brain injury?

Despite decades of overwhelming and clear data that rotational force is what damages the brain, government standards still do not require any degree of protection against brain torque. We can wish it were different, or we can accept it and drive the industry ourselves. This is what Nuro is all about. Moving forward with acceptance.

So what if the standards are out of touch? What can we do about it?

We developed Nuro using our own research in our own extensive laboratory. We developed our own test methodology to measure brain torque and acceleration. And we have worked to illustrate what really happens to the brain inside the skull with our own clear examples (watch egg video). We do what it takes, and we share what we learn. We’ve published over 80 peer-reviewed papers. And we are proud to offer Nuro technology to any helmet brand who wants to partner with us to protect the brain better.

We ask the right questions to find the right answers and do the right thing.

We want you to ask, “how hard is my helmet thinking about my brain?”