Baku, December 2, AZERTAC

As the deadliest creature in the world, the mosquito is thought to have killed up to half of all humans who have ever lived through the transmission of diseases such as malaria, dengue, and West Nile virus.

As the earth warms and as insecticide resistance grows, the range and danger mosquitoes pose only continue to grow.

That is what prompted Israeli startup Diptera.ai to find a creative, non-toxic solution to tackle the mosquito problem in the present and future.

“While major climate initiatives such as the COP29 climate conference focus on mitigating climate change for the future, some of these dangers are already here, and chief among them is mosquitoes,” said Diptera.ai CEO Navonel Glick.

“Everyone’s talking about climate mitigation, but climate adaptation is actually what we need,” Glick continued.

The answer to fighting the spread of tropical diseases, Glick explained, is to control the vector itself.

Insect sterilization – where sterile male mosquitoes are raised in a laboratory and released, mating with wild females and causing them to lay eggs that won’t hatch – is the most straightforward way to deal with mosquitoes and has been around for decades.

Glick explained that the biggest hurdle is the cost involved: sorting males from females is a complex, time-consuming, and expensive process that can only be done in laboratory conditions and once the mosquitoes have matured.

This is where Diptera.ai gets involved.

“We’ve developed a machine that can sort the larva’s gender very early, using machine learning and optics. The machine can automatically determine if a larva is a male or a female,” Glick said.

Glick explained that this machine can sort mosquitoes in seconds, with one pipe going in and two going out, one for males and one for females. This reduces the number of mosquitoes that need to be grown for sterilization projects and allows for a much simpler, cheaper, and quicker sorting process.

“We will be able to reduce the price of producing sterile mosquitoes by 95%,” Glick added.

Glick also added that, unlike prior techniques that required extensive, high-tech mosquito-rearing facilities, Diptera.ai’s approach was more effective and needed less space and equipment.

In their latest trial, Diptera.ai “produced 4.5 million mosquitoes, one of the largest release trials ever done,” Glick explained, adding that “we did that in just two 10-meter square rooms.”

Why it Matters

“Malaria kills a child under five every 68 seconds, and some 40% of the world is at risk of dengue alone,” Glick explained.

That is the health toll, but according to Glick, there is also a barely measured economic toll.

“Direct costs of mosquito-borne diseases are in the tens of billions, but indirect costs – long-term symptoms, healthcare, lost productivity, perpetuated cycles of poverty… it’s massive,” Glick explained.

According to Glick, Diptera.ai sees its role in this battle as conducting the research and development required to efficiently sort and produce sterile mosquitoes for mosquito eradication programs.

“We now have an automated low infrastructure tech that works,” Glick explained, adding, “We want to empower governments around to be able to sustainably control their own mosquito problems.”

“We have one patent approved on the sorter and three patents pending. Our goal is to help governments set up their own rearing facilities, and we will continue providing licensing and support,” Glick continued.

For Diptera.ai, these initiatives must be as locally sourced as possible.

“We want countries to be able to produce their own sterile mosquitoes,” Glick said.

“This isn’t something that only benefits a minority,” Glick explained. “It’s a universal need that we all have.”