Diagenode, a company based in Seraing and specialising in biotechnologies, aims to recruit approximately 100 people in order to have between 140 and 150 employees by 2017, revealed Véronique Distexhe, finance director of the company, on Monday. At the same time, Diagenode plans to triple its floor space in the Science Park in Seraing. The company is looking for people holding a Master’s degree in Biochemistry, a PhD in Sciences, and for lab technicians. They currently have 80 employees including 60 in the new facilities opened in October 2013. These are already too small and the company had to rent more offices in the Science Park in order to welcome 15 more members of staff.
The firm has expanded rapidly since 2008, in effect quadrupling its staff in Belgium and the USA. 20-25% of turnover comes from diagnostic kits allowing users to detect viral infections. These kits are sold to hospitals and labs.
Diagenode has invested strongly in the epigenetics market in recent years. It creates reagents and instruments for universities and research institutes, where researchers use them to investigate the environmental impact of gene alterations. This field is evolving rapidly thanks to progress in the decoding of stretches of DNA.
The company is one of the top 3 in the world in its field, and has an 80% market share in instrument sales.
(Source: Belga)
