Tim graduated as Clinical Chemistry Technician at the Radius College in Breda, the Netherlands and is travelling around the world as one of Eurofins Central Laboratory’s Travelling Laboratory Technicians. Tim is one of Eurofins’ Quiet Heroes, standing between you and the hazards of an ever-changing, highly complex world, making sure you can trust the medicines you depend on.

To overcome the challenges with limited specimen stability, lack of qualified semen analysis technicians at the majority of clinical trial sites and significant variability with both inter- and intra-site laboratory results, Eurofins Central Laboratory has been providing our Travelling Laboratory Technician solution to the industry.

Q: Tim, you travel quite a bit. Where do you travel to?

After my training for the semen analyses in New Orleans my first trip was to Bulgaria. After that trip I visited a lot of clinical trial sites in Poland and Czech Republic. And I have also visited a site in Norcross, close to Atlanta in the USA. At this moment we also travel to support clinical trial sites in Spain, Germany and Georgia. A while ago there even was a request from New Zealand.

Q: Do you visit the same clinical sites during the course of the clinical study?

Yes, as much as we can! We are building relationships with local sites and their staff. But all Travelling Lab Techs are trained the exact same way, so when needed, we have flexibility to also visit any other site as needed. We work with a dedicated resource planning team matching Travelling Lab Techs with scheduled patient visits. We always try to combine multiple clinical site visits within one country for efficiency.

Q: Do you bring any equipment with you when visiting a clinical trial site?

Yes, for my assignment to on-site semen processing [stability less than 1 hour so the time window does not allow shipping to one of our Eurofins Central Laboratory testing sites] I always bring my case with my microscope, cell counter, and some other common laboratory equipment. Sites provide the disposable materials but I always carry some extra with me in case the site has run out of these. We would not want my visit -or even worse, the patient visit- to be useless. I am not the only one travelling, patients also sometimes travel great distances to get to the clinical site.

 We also offer help with processing of PBMC in case the protocol does not allow the deployment of Central Laboratories [less than 12 hours specimen stability].

Q: How many other Travelling colleagues do you have?

Eurofins Central Laboratory currently has 13 dedicated Travelling Laboratory Technicians that operate from our 4 locations globally. We will be adding new team members to support on site processing of specimens with limited specimen stability, when needed.

Q: What did you specialize in before becoming a Travelling Laboratory Tech?

When I’m not on my way supporting local clinical sites, I spend my time in the Safety Laboratory at Eurofins Central Laboratory in Breda. Most of my time I’m operating the clinical chemistry analyzer [Cobas8000]. I will also perform the in-house PBMC processing for samples with a longer stability that allow shipment to our Breda site. I’m trained to perform almost every analytical method in the Safety Laboratory so I can be deployed where ever I am needed most.

“I’m very happy that Eurofins is giving me this chance to be involved in this interesting and important job. They trust me to represent the company at the clinical sites that I visit, being given the responsibility to be the face of Eurofins. I like to travel a lot, seeing new places and meeting new people. I hope to continue this type of work for a long time.”

Solution with Eurofins Travelling Laboratory Technician for Testicular Toxicity Focused Clinical Trials

To overcome the challenges with limited specimen stability, lack of qualified semen analysis technicians at majority of clinical trial sites and significant variability with both inter- and intra-site laboratory results, Eurofins Central Laboratory has been providing our Travelling Laboratory Technician solution to the industry. Emulating the CRA model abundant within the clinical trial industry, we have built a department of Travelling Laboratory Technicians that are available on-call for those patients with upcoming screening visits for baseline analysis, as well as the planned follow-up visits and end-of-drug treatment visit. Our dedicated Travelling Laboratory Technicians bring the standardized and certified analysis required by the FDA, to each of your clinical site locations globally via our staffed locations in:

• Lancaster, PA, USA
• Breda, Netherlands
• Singapore
• Shanghai, China

Relevant highlights of our program are as follows:

• Licensed and certified Laboratory Technicians worldwide
• Performs standardized analysis at clinical trial site, under Eurofins CAP/CLIA certifications from our four global locations
• Includes CAP/CLIA required oversight from Eurofins Laboratory Supervisor, Director and Medical Director ensuring submission ready data results
• Proficiency testing at defined intervals based upon Sponsor criteria
• Travels with calibrated equipment to each clinical site, reducing costs for hardware placement and calibration at each clinical site globally 
• Dedicated Travelling Lab Tech Project Planning resources to manage clinical trial site Travelling Lab Tech needs allowing the most efficient planning

To learn more about our Travelling Laboratory Technician solution for short stability specimen analysis (semen, PBMC processing), please reach out to our scientific team here and we can explore your requirements and Eurofins Central Laboratory solutions together.