From 2000 to 6000 samples per day in a few months

What does that do to employees?

Achieving a corona test capacity of 2000 samples per day within fourteen days. This exceptional performance can be attributed to Biogazelle. The biotech company pulled out all the stops to meet the request of the Belgian minister: setting up a scalable corona test capacity. This requires something from the organization and its employees. Co-founder and head of the research department Jo Vandesompele tells us what this hectic period did to him and his team.

"I was in a kind of trance. Working fourteen hours a day. I got up, went to work and was still at my desk until the wee hours."

The human side

“It was a rollercoaster on all levels,” says Vandesompele. “You have no control over anything. One moment you have a clear strategy, the next you hear that there are too few instruments to process all the requests. Then it is time to switch gears, adjust and respond quickly to the situation.” “That requires something from you. You also have to be made of a certain piece of wood to be able to work in this chaos. I am quite good at that. I like working and am lucky that my family fully supports me. The switch went on for all of us. It was okay that I took over the entire living room as a workplace and that dinner was served at my desk.” Working overtime for hours was the rule rather than the exception. The same applies to working through the weekends. This while it was not mandatory. Employees were even reminded to take a rest. But Vandesompele and his colleagues knew what they were doing it for. “What we do is so incredibly important for society. That is why we wanted to go the extra mile and demand the utmost from ourselves.”

“Everyone at Biogazelle was given the space to indicate when it was no longer feasible for them. There is an open culture where people listen to each other.”

Recruitment procedure

Manpower was needed. A lot of extra hands in the lab. “For 6,000 samples per day, we already needed 36 operators.” A large-scale recruitment process was started in which the University of Ghent and the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology played a major role. “After their call, trained volunteers from all sides showed interest in setting up and scaling up the testing capacity together with us. Without them, it would never have been possible.”

Doubling of the number of employees

Finding, training and onboarding the right people was a major challenge. “We worked with dedicated people who invested a lot of time in the recruitment process and training. This was really necessary, because during this time the number of employees had doubled. During our peak days, no less than 6,000 samples were processed per day.”

Setting up a corona testing process in a short time. How did Biogazelle do that? Read here how

Scale down

In July, the good news came that the pandemic was spreading less rapidly. That quickly showed the other side of the coin: Biogazelle had to scale down its testing capacity. “There was almost no work. Employees had nothing to do anymore. Then came the decision to let staff go.” A month later, the headlines were very different: a second wave of corona is coming. “We went from 500 to 4,000 samples per day again. And again we are looking for, training and inducting people. Of course, that doesn't feel good and is annoying for the colleagues we had to scale down earlier. That human aspect is very difficult.”

No end in sight yet

Although the peak moments have passed, Biogazelle is not standing still. They innovate, automate and optimize their processes. For example, they discover the possibilities of testing mixed samples. Research is also underway into saliva tests. The work for the employees is therefore far from over. “That is not a bad thing. I am a researcher through and through. It is great to be on the front line. It is incredibly satisfying to be able to make a difference.”