A team of animal welfare advocates gathered in discussion

About Us

Built by people who believe the problem is solvable.

Breakthrough10 exists because the tools to end companion animal overpopulation already exist in embryonic form — and because the only thing standing between those tools and the animals who need them is coordinated philanthropic will.

Origin Story

How we got here.

Breakthrough10 began with a simple observation: the companion animal welfare sector spends billions of dollars each year on the consequences of overpopulation — shelters, rescues, euthanasia, disease management — and almost nothing on the root cause.

It is important to note that this observation comes from people who have spent many years and millions of dollars trying to address the consequences piece.

The surgical spay-neuter model, developed in the mid-20th century, was a genuine advance. But it was designed for a world of owned pets with access to veterinary care. It does not scale to the millions of animals roaming the streets or in overcrowded shelters across the US and it certainly does not scale to the billion free-roaming cats and dogs around the planet. For those animals, the surgery is inaccessible, unaffordable, or simply impractical at population scale.

Meanwhile, nonsurgical contraception and sterilization have been advancing quietly for decades. It has been proven in wild horses. It has received federal regulatory approval for deer. The biological mechanisms are conserved across mammals. The question was never whether it could work. The question was whether anyone would sufficiently fund it.

A rescue dog behind shelter fencing — the animals this work is ultimately for

Our Team

The people behind the work.

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Tracey Durning

Co-founder

Tracey is a social impact leader with extensive experience launching and scaling global initiatives across animal welfare, climate change, and marine conservation. She has a proven track record of mobilizing large-scale capital and building high-impact collaborations with change makers, scientists, engineers, aligned philanthropies, investors, and public figures resulting in significant social impact. In animal welfare, she was the Founding CEO of Target Zero, working alongside a small group of top tier do'ers in the space to create an integrated program of Best Practices — which were mentored out to 21+ cities and counties moving them from high kill shelter rates down to zero euthanasia of all adoptable animals (in three years or less). Tracey's work has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Barons, The Stanford Social Innovation Review and TED, among others.

Bio →
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Adam Tarshis

Co-founder

Adam is an entrepreneur and philanthropist dedicated to advancing innovative solutions to animal welfare challenges. Since 2010, Adam has served as a Director of the Amber & Adam Tarshis Foundation which supports scientific research, animal welfare initiatives, and the development of sustainable alternatives to animal-derived foods. A central focus of his philanthropic work is addressing animal overpopulation and the suffering that comes with it through scientific innovation. Recognizing the limitations of traditional surgical sterilization programs, Adam turned the Foundation's attention and funding  towards developing safe, effective, affordable, and scalable nonsurgical fertility-control technologies for companion animals and wildlife. He is also the Founder and CEO of Mozza Foods, a Los Angeles biotechnology company developing animal-free dairy proteins through molecular farming.

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Dr. Mohammed Selman

Chief Scientist

Dr. Mohammed Selman is an accomplished molecular biologist and virologist with extensive experience in vaccine development, viral vector technologies, gene therapy, and preclinical research. His work spans academic research and the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, with a focus on translating scientific discoveries into potential therapeutic applications. Dr. Selman currently serves as a Scientist II at Meissa Vaccines, where he supports the development and characterization of live-attenuated vaccines for emerging and respiratory infectious diseases. Previously, he was a Senior Scientist at Merck Research Laboratories, contributing to the development of oncolytic virotherapies, gene delivery technologies, and CRISPR-based research. His work included collaborations across biologics, manufacturing, infectious disease, and animal health teams. Earlier in his career, Dr. Selman conducted research at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Princeton University, Kyoto University, and McGill University. His expertise encompasses viral engineering, immunology, molecular biology, vaccine development, and the design and execution of preclinical studies.

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Dr Mike Greenberg

Chief Veterinarian

Dr. Mike Greenberg is a veterinarian who has dedicated his career to expanding access to veterinary care. He performs high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter in shelters and accessible-care clinics across the Gulf South, and he co-founded Be Spay-Neuter Consulting, which helps spay/neuter clinics and shelters improve surgical access, efficiency, and quality of care through data-informed workflow optimization. Dr. Greenberg earned his DVM from Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine, followed by an internship and fellowship in shelter medicine through Cornell's Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program, where he co-authored Every Nose Counts, a book on using data in animal shelters. He went on to serve as Program Director of Target Zero and Director of Outreach Programs at Maddie's Fund. Though he enjoys surgery, non-surgical sterilization has been a passion of his since he first encountered the idea in veterinary school. He has championed the concept ever since, working with the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs and other stakeholders, and he looks forward to the day when sterilizing an animal no longer requires opening a scalpel blade. Dr. Greenberg also works at the intersection of animal welfare and technology. He co-founded the Veterinary Care Accessibility Project, a nonprofit building data-driven tools to map and close gaps in veterinary care access, and Petszel, a post-adoption support platform used by shelters nationwide. He makes his home in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Additional Staff / Partners / Advisory Board Members (TBD)

Guided by expertise.

Breakthrough10 will be advised by a multidisciplinary network of experts spanning scientific research, veterinary medicine, animal welfare, innovative financing, product development, regulatory approval, and commercialization—to help inform philanthropic investment, foster collaboration, and accelerate promising technologies from discovery to real-world.

Ready to go further?

Breakthrough10

Calling for 10% of companion animal philanthropy to fund the breakthrough nonsurgical contraceptives and sterilants that could change the lives of a billion animals.

© 2026 Breakthrough10. All rights reserved.

A call to action for companion animal philanthropy.