Across the world, scientists from more than a dozen institutions are harnessing cutting-edge technology to develop a non-surgical sterilant for dogs and cats. They hope their innovative experiments will pay off in two ways: 1) Solve the problem of pet overpopulation, and 2) Secure a $25 million prize.

For the past year, Dr. William Ja has spent long hours in his Scripps Research Institute lab working on a non-surgical sterilant for animals. It doesn’t hurt that there’s $25 million in prize money at stake.

On the surface, ovarian cancer drug developer Crinetics Pharmaceuticals and the Found Animals Foundation seem to have little in common.

The search for a nonsurgical sterilant for dogs and cats has been fueled by more than $6 million in research grants since 2008 when a $25 million prize was offered to the first person to successfully develop a method of chemically castrating pets.

John Herr spends every day thinking about and working toward finding a non-surgical method to sterilize dogs and cats. He has good reason to — there’s a $25 million prize at stake.

Let’s say there was a way for you to spay your cat without subjecting her to surgery. Would you do it? Would you neuter your dog via pill or injection?

Michelson Prize and Grants program spurs research into nonsurgical spay/neuter.

Anyone who has ever used treats or praise to train a canine companion knows that dogs respond to incentives. I’m sure you’re aware from your own experience that humans do, too.

One of the world’s great scientific prizes has a simple-sounding mission: Develop a treatment, maybe a shot or pill, that is inexpensive and eliminates the need for expensive surgery to spay or neuter a cat or dog.

Prize sponsors, like those in centuries past, say that offering financial incentives gets new people thinking about old problems.