Rancho Santa Fe, CA -- Innolytics, LLC announced today that it has received a US$100,000 "Grand Challenges Explorations" grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Dr. Alexander MacDonald, Chief Science Officer titled "Contraception based on inhibition of the sperm receptor".Dr. MacDonald's project is one of 78 grants announced by the Gates Foundation in the fourth funding round of Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to help scientists around the world explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve health in developing countries. The grants were provided to scientists in 18 countries on six continents.To receive funding, MacDonald showed in a two-page application how his idea falls outside current scientific paradigms and might lead to significant advances in global health. The initiative is highly competitive, receiving almost 2,700 proposals in this round.Virtually all mammalian contraception is based on some form of hormonal action. OvoControl® brand of nicarbazin, now registered for avian use, can potentially represent a new class of contraceptive technology in mammals. Dr. MacDonald, a chemist originally from the University of Iowa, spent the first part of his career in drug development with Hoffmann-La Roche in Nutley, NJ. He has spent the large part of the last decade studying nicarbazin and its unique contraceptive properties. The Gates Foundation funded research will determine the effectiveness of this novel compound on the inhibition of the sperm receptor in higher species. "We have demonstrated the novel use of the compound as a safe and effective contraceptive method in birds and plan to determine its effectiveness in mammals", stated MacDonald. The winners of these grants show the bold thinking we need to tackle some of the world's greatest health challenges," said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation's Global Health Program. "I'm excited about their ideas and look forward to seeing some of these exploratory projects turn into life-saving breakthroughs."About Grand Challenges Explorations Grand Challenges Explorations is a five-year, $100 million initiative of the Gates Foundation to promote innovation in global health. The program uses an agile, streamlined grant process - applications are limited to two pages, and preliminary data are not required. Proposals are reviewed and selected by a committee of foundation staff and external experts, and grant decisions are made within approximately three months of the close of the funding round.Applications for the current round of Grand Challenges Explorations are being accepted through May 19, 2010. Grant application instructions, including the list of topics for which proposals are currently being accepted, are available at http://www.grandchallenges.org/explorations.Established in 2003, Innolytics, LLC is a privately held company that focuses on developing humane population management technology for wildlife. For further information, see the company website at ovocontrol.com.