Google subsidiary expands mosquito facility in Singapore to strengthen anti-dengue efforts
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Mosquitoes passing through lanes in machines in the Sex Sorting Room, leading out of their container. The system uses AI to identify and segregate male and female mosquitoes.
ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
- Google's Debug is expanding its Singapore facility to 28,000 sqft and hiring staff to boost mosquito production and enhance AI/automation for dengue control.
- Project Wolbachia, with Debug producing over 10 million mosquitoes weekly, significantly cut dengue cases and mosquito populations in Singapore.
- Debug will serve as a regional R&D hub, though NEA's plan for a third facility faced tender issues, highlighting challenges in scaling Wolbachia efforts.
AI generated
SINGAPORE – Tech giant Google’s subsidiary Debug, which is tackling mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue in Singapore, is expanding its facility in Kaki Bukit from 20,000 sq ft to 28,000 sq ft, as well as its research and development capabilities.
Debug said on May 12 it also aims to hire more staff – including software engineers and mosquito biologists – to beef up its present headcount of 20. It did not say how many positions would be created.
The expansion allows it to refine its existing technologies in support of Singapore’s Project Wolbachia, such as artificial intelligence-powered sorting of mosquitoes by sex, automated release systems and mosquito production technology.
Launched in 2016, Project Wolbachia is an initiative to control the Aedes mosquito population here through the release of laboratory-grown male mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia bacteria. Female mosquitoes that mate with these male mosquitoes produce eggs that do not hatch, thus reducing the mosquito population over time.
Debug began as a project under Verily Life Sciences – a precision health company under Google’s parent company Alphabet – which the National Environment Agency (NEA) first partnered with in 2018 to trial Debug’s automated sex-sorter and mosquito release technology.
Its Kaki Bukit facility is now one of two facilities here responsible for producing Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes. The other is operated by NEA.
Debug now releases more than 10 million male mosquitoes each week – up from about six million in 2024 – while the NEA facility releases some five million mosquitoes a week.
With its expansion, it aims to increase this number even further, said Debug business development lead Monica Tsai.
To do so, it will further automate its processes to produce more higher-quality mosquitoes as well as enhance its use of AI in the sorting of male mosquitoes for release.
New research and development (R&D) efforts will further integrate automation across the entire rearing life cycle, to drive higher yield while ensuring the quality of mosquitoes.
“It’s about how you get to that next big number,” said Ms Tsai.
Research showed that Aedes aegypti mosquito populations were reduced by 80 per cent to 90 per cent in areas covered by Project Wolbachia, with the dengue risk for residents in these areas decreasing by more than 70 per cent.
Debug’s business development lead Monica Tsai (left), pictured with senior programme manager Yanni Yoong, said Debug aims to release even more Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes.
ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
In 2025, dengue cases in Singapore hit a seven-year low of 4,036 – a 70 per cent drop from the 13,651 cases recorded in 2024.
The first quarter of 2026 saw 410 cases recorded, a decrease of almost 30 per cent from the 579 cases reported in the previous quarter.
Debug’s enhanced facility will also act as its R&D hub for the region, developing its capabilities in the field of mosquito population replacement, including a new specialised larval rearing unit.
Debug said this will allow it to deliver customised, more cost-effective solutions for other South-east Asian countries with larger populations.
Unlike Singapore’s suppression approach, where only male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes are released, the population replacement strategy involves releasing both male and female mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia bacteria, reducing the costs involved in the sorting of mosquitoes.
As the bacteria naturally blocks the transmission of dengue, this approach – practised in countries such as Australia, Brazil and Malaysia – aims to eventually replace disease-carrying mosquito populations with harmless ones.
On its website, NEA notes that its studies suggest Wolbachia only partially blocks dengue transmission, which could make the replacement approach less effective in Singapore’s context.
“A rise in mosquito population could theoretically negate the partial block, or even result in an increase in dengue transmission,” the agency said.
Debug head Linus Upson said the choice of Singapore as its first international R&D hub underscored its “confidence in the nation’s deep-tech ecosystem, talents, and its leadership in deploying the Wolbachia method”.
“This new chapter is about accelerating Asian-tailored solutions and scaling our experience to make Debug’s end-to-end technology accessible globally,” he added.
“We’re proud of the impact that we’ve made in Singapore, and we look forward to scaling our learnings and solutions to impact more people across Asia-Pacific and around the world,” said Google Singapore managing director Ben King.
In 2024, NEA announced plans to launch a third Wolbachia facility. This facility is necessary to allow for the further expansion of the project, providing broader national coverage and strengthening its operational resilience, it noted.
However, the agency said a 2025 tender to establish such a facility was not awarded as submissions did not meet its combined requirements for operational standards, technical specifications and value-for-money benchmark.
“We will refine our procurement approach for the next call to ensure our requirements can be met,” said NEA in response to media queries.
