Scaling up a lab isn’t just about buying more benches or hiring more staff. It’s a complex shift that touches every part of your operation—from workflows and equipment to regulatory compliance, data management, and capital planning.
For early-stage biotech startups, the signals often start small: high-throughput assays take longer to schedule, lab equipment is booked solid, sample storage is full, or scientists are waiting on reagents or spending time troubleshooting instead of generating results. Sometimes the trigger is a funding milestone, a new program, or a shift toward GMP-readiness or larger-scale validation. But no matter the catalyst, effective scale-up requires more than just “more.”
It takes careful planning, cross-functional coordination, and a strategy that optimizes scientific progress without creating new bottlenecks or draining cash.
Recognize the signals that it’s time to scale
Lab growth doesn’t usually happen overnight. Most scale-up processes begin with compounding inefficiencies: increasing downtime, scheduling conflicts, and rising frustration. These aren’t catastrophic failures, but they are early warnings that your small-scale lab is hitting its limits.
Common signals include:
- Workflow bottlenecks: Shared equipment is overbooked, automated systems are overloaded, and timelines start slipping.
- Space constraints: Freezers, refrigerators, and benchtop instruments are packed. Sample tracking and reagent storage become disorganized.
- Operational drag: Scientists spend more time solving process problems or locating lab supplies than running experiments.
- Validation and QC pressure: Scaling assays for reproducibility or preparing for GMP compliance starts to strain your infrastructure.
Recognizing these stress points early gives you time to plan, rather than respond reactively. Scaling before you’re forced to helps reduce disruptions and preserve data integrity.
Prioritize function, not just footprint
When it comes to scaling, the instinct is often physical: more square footage, more instruments, more people. But smart scale-ups prioritize functionality over footprint.
Ask yourself:
- What process parameters are limiting our workflows today?
- Where do we lose time to manual steps, outdated systems, or poor resource coordination?
- Are we building infrastructure that supports scalable reproducibility, not just throughput?
Sometimes the right answer isn’t another sequencer or bioreactor—it’s a more automated sample prep system, a better ELN or LIMS integration, or creating a second clean room or cell culture space to run parallel programs without contamination risk.
Build around how your team works, not just what you think you should add.
Scale in phases to avoid disruption
Attempting to scale everything at once is a recipe for lost productivity. Instead, use a phased scale-up process to protect ongoing work and spread out cost.
Start with critical-path needs:
- Overbooked or failure-prone equipment
- Overloaded sample storage
- Lab operations that delay decision-making or timelines
Then expand:
- Add modular workstations or benchtop automation to streamline busy workflows
- Layer in redundancy for critical systems (freezers, centrifuges, filtration units)
- Upgrade data management tools to support quality control and real-time tracking
This approach aligns with financial planning as well. By breaking up procurement into logical waves, you avoid capital bottlenecks and tie investment to actual milestones or partnerships.
Coordinate cross-functionally from the start
Successful lab expansions don’t live in isolation. R&D may drive the need, but scale-up requires input from ops, finance, procurement, and often facilities teams. Without that coordination, you risk overspending, underutilized assets, or compliance issues.
Include:
- Shared goals: What are we scaling for—faster turnaround? larger-scale production? GMP-readiness?
- Aligned timelines: When will systems be needed? How long will onboarding, installation, or validation take?
- Clear responsibilities: Who handles equipment leasing, vendor selection, regulatory prep, or raw materials sourcing?
Having the right people at the table helps you scale in a way that maintains quality, supports decision-making, and keeps stakeholders aligned.
Expand access, not just infrastructure
Not every constraint requires an in-house solution. Sometimes the most cost-effective and scalable option is to expand access, not ownership.
Some strategies include:
- Shared lab spaces: Coworking labs and incubators offer access to specialty tools and controlled environments without large fixed costs.
- CROs or core facilities: Offloading bottlenecked assays or high-throughput runs can free internal bandwidth and improve timelines.
- Scheduling optimization: Use lab booking software and clear ownership protocols to improve equipment usage patterns.
- Modular tools: Plug-and-play devices and mobile workstations allow fast deployment without long-term infrastructure commitments.
These approaches increase lab efficiency and extend your scientific capacity without large upfront investment. They’re especially useful during transition phases or while validating new programs.
Use leasing to stay agile and reduce CapEx strain
Scaling often involves expensive equipment decisions. But committing to high-cost assets during periods of rapid change or early-stage unpredictability can create unnecessary risk.
That’s where leasing provides strategic value:
- Faster deployment: Leased systems can often be delivered and installed more quickly than CapEx purchases.
- Cost-effectiveness: Spread payments over time, preserving cash flow for reagents, personnel, or quality control.
- Scalable growth: Add instruments in phases, as program complexity increases or production ramps.
- Risk mitigation: Avoid being locked into expensive tools that may no longer be needed as priorities shift.
Leasing also simplifies equipment offboarding, lets you upgrade to newer technology without sunk costs, and supports smoother transitions between lab-scale and pilot-scale phases.
Closing thought: Build a lab that evolves with your science
At its core, a smart scale-up is about adaptability. You want a lab setup that supports scientific velocity, not one that constantly needs retrofitting as conditions change.
That means designing for:
- Flexible workflows that accommodate new team members and programs
- Automation that reduces bottlenecks and human error
- Tools that meet regulatory standards without locking you into rigid infrastructure
- Real-time visibility into lab operations, usage, and quality metrics
And most of all, it means building partnerships that let you scale thoughtfully—not just for the next milestone, but for long-term growth and commercialization.
At Excedr, we work with biotech and life sciences teams to make lab scale-up more flexible. Whether that means leasing equipment for pilot-scale studies, outfitting new space, or navigating budget constraints, we help teams streamline growth with fewer bottlenecks.
If you're scaling and want to avoid CapEx strain or infrastructure missteps, we’d love to talk through your plans.