Zachy Hennessey
January 23

We all hate mosquitoes. They buzz, they bite and as we all know, they suck. They’re seemingly everywhere, managing to turn a perfectly nice nighttime conversation on the back porch into a hurried, slap-filled chat.

What’s worse is that they carry diseases. Mosquito-borne diseases — such as malaria — represent a global health crisis of staggering proportions, infecting 700 million people annually and claiming 1 million lives.

According to UNICEF, as of 2020 about 76 percent of those 1 million lives lost to malaria per year belong to children; in fact, a child dies from malaria every 60 seconds.

Traditional methods for eliminating mosquitoes are not working at a rate that can keep up with the increase in mosquito habitats due to climate change and urbanization. Mosquitoes are gradually developing resistance to chemical pesticides, whose use is already a health concern.

“ If you want to get rid of mosquitoes in your bedroom, use a shoe, or spray or nets; but when you’re talking about killing the whole population of mosquitoes and doing so without killing ourselves and the environment and biodiversity in the process, there’s no easy thing to do,” says Navonel Glick, CEO of the Israeli biotech startup Diptera.ai.

Navonel Glick, now Diptera.ai’s CEO, distributing mosquito nets in Kenya, circa 2011, for IsraAID. Photo by Mickey Noam-Alon/IsraAID
Navonel Glick, now Diptera.ai’s CEO, distributing mosquito nets in Kenya, circa 2011, for IsraAID. Photo by Mickey Noam-Alon/IsraAID

Diptera’s technology can cut mosquito populations in targeted areas tenfold – believe it or not, by breeding and releasing more mosquitoes.

Founded in 2020 in Jerusalem, Diptera.ai is reinventing the process of sorting mosquitoes, which is a key factor in several proven methods of mosquito control. 

The most prominent of these methods is the sterile insect technique (SIT), an ecofriendly method that has long been theoretically promising but practically challenging.

Fewer biters

Basically, SIT involves releasing swarms of sterile male mosquitoes (which don’t bite; only the females do that), which then mate with local females, preventing reproduction. 

By flooding the ecosystem with blank-shooting males, the likelihood of mosquito eggs getting fertilized is severely diluted, making each generation less capable of producing as many baby biters as the last. 

As Glick puts it, “We are getting rid of mosquito populations, but we do so using the mosquitoes themselves.”

SIT has been used for the past 60 years for a variety of pesky bugs like fruit flies, screwworms and yes, mosquitoes too. But it’s difficult to scale up a process that involves mass-sorting and sterilization of creatures that are renowned for their ability to zip away as soon as you notice them.

“ Before Diptera, you would have to raise your larvae for a number of days, feeding them and keeping them in the right climate conditions until they become pupae. After they become pupae, then they become adults. When they’re adults, then you need to put them in cages. Now you have these fragile, flying, adult mosquitoes that you need to then sort between the males and the females, because you only want the males. That’s extremely tedious and mostly done manually at this point,” Glick explains.

Instead, Diptera.ai uses advanced biology, computer vision and robotics tech that enables cost-effective mosquito sorting at the larval stage. 

According to the company, this unique method cuts production expenses by up to 95% compared to previous standards based on WHO and IAEA statistics.

Sterilize and release

Diptera sterilizes the sorted males with radiation and releases them into the given ecosystem on a weekly basis. 

As mosquito populations begin to drop over time, the number of sterile males needed drops significantly too — by 50% within three years.

Although SIT is the technique that the company is primarily promoting, Glick points out that the technology “is equally important for other solutions, such as genetically modifying mosquitoes, meaning that we are making any of these solutions affordable and scalable for the first time.” 

Releasing mosquitoes manually in Tzora during the pilot. Photo courtesy of Diptera.ai
Releasing mosquitoes manually in Tzora during the pilot. Photo courtesy of Diptera.ai

It sounds a little madcap, but the results so far are significant: In a recent pilot project in Kibbutz Tzora outside Jerusalem, Diptera.ai managed to reduce the local mosquito population by 94%. 

That’s 94% less itchy red bumps on the back of your knees, and 94% fewer instances of “don’t move, I’m about to slap your eyebrow,” and most importantly, 94% fewer carriers of deadly diseases in locales where a mosquito bite can cause a death in the family.

Solution for Africa

Diptera recently partnered with the Gates Foundation to combat malaria, and is raising funds to bring its solution to sub-Saharan Africa with the hope of saving the lives of millions of children. 

The planned pilot project will involve working with local municipalities and internationally recognized research institutes to establish a facility to produce a couple hundred thousand sterile male mosquitoes every week. 

“Often when there are problems in the world, the market will kind of naturally pivot to where there’s money. And where there’s money there are wealthy people, obviously,” says Glick. 

“Therefore, the poor and vulnerable that are already disproportionately affected by many of these issues end up being the ones that are left behind. This is definitely true with malaria.”

He explains that, beyond the obvious ethical benefit to aiding communities that need help, reducing the overall amount of disease being transmitted globally is in everyone’s interest.

In that vein, the nine-person Diptera team is trying to make sure that the solution is cheap enough to implement in places that need it the most and can afford it the least.

“We’re trying to keep the price low by understanding what we can source locally as much as possible — both as a matter of principle and as a matter of reducing costs,” Glick explains.

“If we can keep this cheap, then we’ll be able to reach everyone who needs it. It’s as simple as that.”

Glick has years of experience in the battle against mosquitoes spreading disease. Photo by Mickey Noam-Alon/IsraAID
Glick has years of experience in the battle against mosquitoes spreading disease. Photo by Mickey Noam-Alon/IsraAID

This goal is directly in line with Glick’s career trajectory.

His previous experience in the Israeli international humanitarian-aid industry includes three-and-a-half years at Tevel b’Tzedek and nine years at IsraAID, which Glick helped expand into one of the leading organizations in its field.

Eventually he left the nonprofit world, frustrated by the struggle of trying to deliver aid without always having the funds necessary to do so. When Glick was approached to helm Diptera.ai – he became CEO last July – the move made perfect sense to him.

“ This gives me the drive that I’m looking for in things to make a difference,” he says. “It gives me purpose again.”

For more information on Diptera, click here

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