About SymbioCI SEA — founded by Prof Zhiyong Xi of Michigan State University

The company

Production and deployment, built on two decades of research.

SymbioCI SEA is a Singapore-based biotechnology company building production and deployment infrastructure to bring Wolbachia biocontrol to public health programmes across Southeast Asia.

We are a programme partner: combining world-class strain science, state-of-the-art production automation, and operational experience from prior large-scale deployments into an end-to-end service configured around each programme's specific context.

SymbioCI SEA is the commercial vehicle through which Prof Xi's two decades of Wolbachia research, and our production partner's automated systems, become regionally accessible to Southeast Asian health agencies and governments.

Based in

Singapore

Focused on Southeast Asia.

Focus

Vector-borne disease control

Targeting dengue and other vector-borne diseases in urban and peri-urban Southeast Asia, where Aedes mosquitoes are the primary public health vector challenge.

Approach

Wolbachia-based biocontrol

Non-chemical. Non-GMO. Field-validated suppression and replacement strategies, fully configurable from production through to release.

Scientific foundation

Co-founded by the scientist who originated this field.

Chairman, SymbioCI SEA

Prof Zhiyong Xi

Professor · Michigan State University
Chairman · SymbioCI SEA

Prof Zhiyong Xi is one of the world's foremost researchers in Wolbachia-based vector control. The scientist credited with first establishing stable artificial Wolbachia infections in the key dengue-vector mosquito species, his laboratory at Michigan State University has spent over two decades building the strain library, production methodology, and scientific framework that underpins SymbioCI SEA's platform.

The peer-reviewed field results behind our platform, including landmark publications in Nature (2019) and Communications Biology (2022), trace directly to research initiated and led by Prof Xi's group.

Aedes aegypti

First stable artificial Wolbachia infection

Aedes albopictus

First stable artificial Wolbachia infection

Anopheles stephensi

First stable artificial Wolbachia infection

Nilaparvata lugens

First stable artificial Wolbachia infection

Operational experience

A team that has run large-scale programmes before.

Running a Wolbachia biocontrol programme at scale requires sustained rearing capacity, reliable sex separation, rigorous quality assurance, field logistics, and monitoring systems, all operating concurrently across a real programme area.

The SymbioCI SEA founding team brings direct operational experience from prior large-scale Wolbachia production and release programmes. This experience informs the operational design of every programme we propose.

Large-scale rearing

Multi-year production at volumes required for real programme delivery.

Sex separation at scale

High-confidence male-only separation, one of the most technically demanding requirements in any IIT programme.

Urban release operations

Field logistics and scheduling for ground-based release in urban environments.

Programme monitoring

Trap networks, data collection, and reporting for ongoing programme assessment.

Our mission

"The science to reduce dengue sustainably has existed for over a decade. We are here to make it deployable."

Dengue affects hundreds of millions of people every year. The countries bearing the heaviest burden are almost all in Southeast Asia. Insecticide-based control remains the dominant approach, but resistance is rising, costs are sustained, and disease transmission continues.

Wolbachia biocontrol has demonstrated the ability to change that, in peer-reviewed urban programmes at real scale. What has been missing is the production and deployment infrastructure to make it accessible to the agencies and governments that most need it. SymbioCI SEA is building that infrastructure, in Singapore, for Southeast Asia.

Production and deployment, built on two decades of research.

Co-founded by the scientist who originated this field.

A team that has run large-scale programmes before.

Interested in working with our team?