Jesteśmy na rynku od 2010 roku

We started in 2010. Our story is very simple: three chemistry and pharmacy graduates who were friends decided to start their own laboratory. At that time we were still employees of the Medical University of Gdańsk, so we had experience of how scientific institutions functioned, but we lacked a typical business approach and wanted to develop our own research projects that would respond to specific market needs. So we operate like a business, but based on a scientific methodology. It is our mission to successively manage Spark-Lab as a platform for cooperation between science and business.

 

It is not easy, there is a lack of such management models in our industry sector, but over time we have developed our own to fill this missing gap in the market and we are getting better at it. Our greatest value is the hundreds of completed projects for very demanding customers from various industries, which we approach completely individually and each such order is another new pattern, analysis and method that we develop especially for the needs of this project.

 

In the last 2 years only, we have developed over 200 completely proprietary analysis methods and we know that there will be more and more. The team that we have built and that has been with us for years consists of highly and narrowly specialised analysts from various areas, thanks to which the team is interdisciplinary and easily completes subsequent project challenges.

 

To summarise: we solve real problems for the manufacturing sector in the pharmaceutical, chemical and food industries, as well as in cosmetics.

About us

We work with leaders

Since 2013 at Spark - Lab we have developed, maintained and continuously successfully improved a Quality Management System in accordance with the ISO 9001:2008 standard. In subsequent years, we rebuilt the system, resulting in the company's new two administrative departments: research and development and routine analysis. By separating these structures, we were able to implement an integrated system in the routine analysis department, which has since been operating in accordance with the two standards that are ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 17025:2018-02.

Our management

Łukasz Guzik, DPharm

Łukasz Guzik, DPharm

Chief Business Development Officer

Doctor of Pharmacy from the Medical University of Gdańsk (GUMed), who fulfilled his professional dream by opening his laboratory together with his friends (a chemist and another pharmacist) with the firm intention of creating a thriving research and development department within it. Today, looking back from the perspective of 11 years, he is satisfied with the research projects completed, which have allowed SL to develop a reputation in the market and bring so many challenges that a job at any university could not offer. He recalls the beginnings as difficult, almost a classic self-made-man's path to market success, but emphasises that this effort was shared jointly and evenly by the entire current management team; equal dedication and consistency on the way to the goal, coloured with an offbeat sense of humour, great curiosity and an open mind.

The biggest challenge was to simultaneously learn all the principles of running a business from scratch, ranging from analytics to trading and all the procedures necessary to improve the quality of the labo's work. He finds the crowning achievement of his more than decade-long efforts not in specific pharmacy projects, but in the co-building of the entire organisation as an interesting entity made up of personalities, aptitudes, joint efforts and the comfort of working in a friendly atmosphere.

He considers the current market situation in the R&D sector to be fair and favourable, as success is primarily determined by implementation results and measurable outcomes, unlike in routine analysis where price is of the essence. Among the projects, he likes his speciality the most: R&D for pharma, which is always an intellectual challenge. In the dreams, SL is in a leadership position in another industry, precisely in R&D for pharma industry, second to e- liquids, now graciously reigning almost all over Europe!

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Maciej Barc, Msc Eng

Maciej Barc, Msc Eng

Chief Technology Officer

A chemist from the Gdańsk University of Technology, one of the tenacious co-founders of Spark-Lab and at the same time one of the most cheerful members of the crew on the SL board, always eager for an accurate and quick punchline. He recalls the beginnings of SL as a period of sacrifice both professionally and personally, but at the same time full of satisfaction. As he says: if you like what you do, you're not really working. He remembers that the set-up and construction work that had to be done in the laboratory on his own was more painful than the start-up itself. One of the many sparklab fans of project diversity, which gives constant impetus to doing more and more new challenges, such as projects for the European Space Agency or isolating and investigating the chemical identity of unknown substances. What he probably likes most about SL is that we have access to virtually all the major analytical techniques. He often likes to play with 'heavier' equipment such as supercritical extractor and preparative flash chromatography. He assesses our industry as not easy, due to the dominance of large operators with high demands. They cannot be let down even in the most minor aspect of the project due to the fact that these are long-term relationships. Maciek's motto is: if something can be done in our industry, we will do it. In his dreams, he sees an even stronger position for SL as rescuing companies from severe, at first sight, insurmountable problems. He appreciates when customers don't sweep difficult issues under the carpet, but call us. And we pick up the gauntlet - every time!

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Alicja Kucharska-Guzik, MPharm

Alicja Kucharska-Guzik, MPharm

Chief Financial Officer

A pharmacist after the Gdańsk University of Technology who co-founded SL and took on many new roles at once: as the first actual New Business Director, exploring new areas of the industry and growth opportunities, as an analyst on her own, as a co-builder of the team from scratch and finally as Łukasz's future wife. This multitude of roles, despite the stubbornly short day, did not overwhelm her at the expense of sleepless nights, and despite her relative unconsciousness, she not only succeeded in achieving her jointly agreed objectives, but also gradually helped the company to move to a higher level of development as an organisation in every aspect. One of the landmark projects for SL was the challenge to test 59 compounds in 120 wines to develop the Delipair application. The second clear breakthrough, as Alicja recalls, was a customer, almost left alone in the face of the market situation at the time, who gave SL the impetus to design and develop its own Smoky Lab apparatus, thus meeting the needs of one determined customer and filling a gap in the market that determined SL's future position as a leader in e-liquid testing. Alicja, just like Łukasz, is very encouraged by the current level of development of SL as a tight-knit team, with a willingness to work and a constant sense of humour, as well as a sense of security that this is a team to whom you can delegate some of the important activities and be confident of a good outcome from this trust. In addition to many certificates, one of our distinguishing principles apart from many certificates, she finds the principle of limited confidence in ourselves - each sample is analysed as many times as possible to rule out any error. She values her independence and being on her own immensely. She sees SL with a leadership position in the second sector after e-liquids, i.e. R&D for pharma, in her next meticulously set goals. Now, feeling well looked after by independent analysts, she boldly sets her sights on self-development: she dreams of a doctoral thesis and, of course, has all possible research goals in her field clarified. We're keeping our fingers crossed and rooting for the next future doc in our team!

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Our team

Joanna Jakubowska, MPharm

Joanna Jakubowska, MPharm

Project Coordinator & Routine Analyses Dept. Manager

Master of Pharmacy from the Medical University of Gdańsk, main driving force behind all spark-lab projects. Her watchful eye never misses a detail of the dozens of projects going on simultaneously, while watching over the other analysts and the management to get everything done at almost beam of light speed. Joanna expects above all challenges and novelty from her work, so here, despite the misleading name of the Routine Department, where there is not a single microgram of routine and she enjoys fulfillment. Arriving at work and finding a suspicious momentary lull, she immediately thinks that something is not working and needs to be fixed (read: brought back to life) quickly. She values SL most for its unique atmosphere and the conflict-free nature of its staff. Privately, a fulfilled mother of two equally energetic daughters and our constant supply of energising power.

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Anna Charzyńska, Msc Eng

Anna Charzyńska, Msc Eng

Project Manager

She holds a master's degree in Chemical Technology from the Gdańsk University of Technology and at Spark-Lab she is an Analyst in the R&D Department. Highly specialised in liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Known for developing high quality analytical methods, which is confirmed by many positive reviews from our customers. 

There are many things she likes about Spark-Lab: from the opportunity to continually expand her already impressive knowledge, through the casual dress code, to the spark-lab fudge that disappears quickly under mysterious circumstances. She is privately a dance enthusiast and a cat lover. 

We take care of her as best we can, as there are not many such specialists in the industry.

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Tomasz Lis, PhD, Eng

Tomasz Lis, PhD, Eng

Scientific Sales Representative

He has a PhD in materials engineering, specialising in chemical technology and ceramics, but that's very misleading, because Tomasz handles almost every possible area of the lab, from water and wastewater, pollutants or active substances, dietary supplements and biocides, plants and carbon materials, to reaction inhibitors and rocket fuels, and all in one day! One of our devoted fans of diverse design challenges, who gets as far away from routine as he can. Besides, being 630 km away from us, he has not seen any obstacles to smooth cooperation for years. He likes SL for its quick ability to find solutions not only in crisis situations, but also to resolve scientific issues. Addicted to the sense of satisfaction after completing a difficult project.

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Agnieszka Zimodro, MSc Eng

Agnieszka Zimodro, MSc Eng

Quality Management System Representative

Biotechnologist from the University of Silesia and chemical technologist from the Gdańsk University of Technology. The greatest lover of all kinds of order and uniformity in the good sense of the word that we know. In our team of fans of all variety, she is an unaffected oasis of calm who quickly brings us back down to earth, keeping an eye on the guidelines that apply to all the certificates we are the lucky holders of. She most enjoys sitting back in her warm (necessarily) office nest and creating procedures from scratch, knowing that they translate into reality and will work flawlessly. Apart from the warm temperature (we are exceptionally warm), Agnieszka likes the SL crew for its flexibility and openness, and we hope she will guide us with this captivating patience through the subsequent certifications and requirements.

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Marek Zieliński, PhD, Eng

Marek Zieliński, PhD, Eng

Analyst

Biotechnologist graduated from the University of Technology, in our company an analyst with a whole range of interesting research experiences and looking forward to the next ones. He has dealt with such niche projects as dioxins - organic compounds formed in combustion processes (waste, rubbish, tyres, crematoria, forest fires, volcanic eruptions), he has also studied the presence of dioxins in the milk of nursing mothers, where milk is the site of their particular accumulation, and has come to some very interesting research conclusions on a pool of 300 female volunteers. He has also been involved in assessing the exposure of workers to hazardous airborne compounds in their work environment (for example, anaesthetists in operating rooms exposed to anaesthetic (narcotic) gases). You could go on and on. Here he works on method validations using gas chromatography. He considers SL to be the most balanced place to work in his career; in the Research Institute, after working there for a dozen or so years, it became too calm for Mark, in the corporation it was a rat race, and here he has his balance and appreciates us for the company's brainstorming sessions and the expertise of the management, strongly supporting him in key analyses.

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Mariusz Kułaga, MSc Eng

Mariusz Kułaga, MSc Eng

Analyst

He is an atypical analyst after constructing chemistry, where already at the end of his studies his interests took a sudden turn towards plant extraction techniques for supplements, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. He has already completed his master's degree in nicotine isolation, perfectly in line with our extensive analysis of e-liquids for e-cigarettes. Mariusz, whom we call Mario, is another fan of project diversity, where every week surprises him with new innovations. Just like Asia, he likes it when problematic issues arise, and then he is ready and waiting, accepting a challenge to the next research task or sticker. Like no one else, he enjoys his nights in the lab as he watches over his next analysis. For him, SL's greatest strength is people and more people (with an exclamation mark really). He believes that we should go in the direction of even increased contact with the customer, as this is an interesting added value for him.

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Justyna Lenczewska

Justyna Lenczewska

Junior Analyst

Environmental protection technician, specialising in water and wastewater treatment, who is not afraid of any job, as evidenced by a very extensive and interesting career through all levels in a food chain. However, the calling she felt at the beginning of her career path re-emerged and so she found herself with us, passionately moving from lab assistant to junior, literally enjoying every new dose of knowledge. We are proud of Justyna, who, coming to us at a difficult time of the pandemic, has managed to acquire most of the knowledge herself and we know that she has an appetite for much more. She loves novelty, hates routine, and considers the cohesive and friendly team to be SL's greatest strength. As he says, when there is no atmosphere at work, there is simply no work, and here it is. She would see us on more extensive projects in the cosmetics sector, for her this is the biggest market future in our sector.

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Izabela Dzierżawska, MSc Eng

Izabela Dzierżawska, MSc Eng

Junior Analyst

A recent graduate in chemistry from the Gdańsk University of Technology, freed from the clutches of routine work in a pharmacy as a pharmacy technician, here she is fascinated by so many research possibilities that she could not even dream of during her highly theoretical studies. Almost on the run, she ended up in one of our biggest pharmaceutical projects, following the advertisements for the supplement on TV in the evenings with great satisfaction, glad that she had analysed it and that she would see more of "her children" in the next prime time. She looks forward to seeing customers with new substances, because that's the fun and satisfaction of closing a project. The most committed coffee drinker next to the boss in our spark - lab cafe, where she sips her sugar-free coffee milk (necessarily with lactose!) and enjoys the daily, almost family atmosphere. In addition, she is blossoming into a tough manager of collecting donations for our next birthdays, anniversaries and fetes, and as the occasions are constantly increasing, Iza has already acquired quite a substantial new urbanity. Like Justyna and Marzena, she would also see us more involved in cosmetic projects (so many new substances!).

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9). Agnieszka Balcerak, Eng

9). Agnieszka Balcerak, Eng

Coordination &Finance Department Employee

Graduated from the Faculty of Management at the Gdańsk University of Technology, she gained her professional experience, among others, in the automotive industry, which she is also passionate about in her private life. For many years she was also associated with Horeca, where she gained experience in many administrative and managerial positions. Despite her success in this area, the desire for further development and curiosity about a new industry prevailed and she decided to make a U turn in her career and join the SL team. Her natural meticulousness and perfectionism made her adapt quickly to her new surroundings and challenges, which is best proven by the trust the management has placed in her when entrusting her with new tasks. She greatly appreciates the opportunity to learn among experts and the open, friendly yet professional approach to employees. Privately, she is a fan of automotive as well as healthy eating; she sees us in the future in even more commercial projects.

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