The ISU Research Park still works for faculty startups

AMES, Iowa (March 31, 2026) – Subhanwit Roy, working in the back corner of the rear lab of Skroot Laboratory Inc., connected one of the company’s electronics boards to a test receiver.

Roy’s to-do list on a recent morning at Skroot’s lab in the Iowa State University Research Park was making sure a wireless reader board the company has developed is ready to be shipped out for electromagnetic compatibility certification.

Roy was testing the board for electronic interference that could disrupt other equipment or devices. The Federal Communications Commission has strict requirements for such emissions.

Roy, the director of engineering and research for Skroot, a startup founded by Iowa State faculty member Nigel Reuel, has an Iowa State doctorate in electrical engineering. His doctoral work was devoted, in part, to developing the electronics Skroot uses to wirelessly read the sensors it markets to monitor cell growth for biomanufacturing, including growing cells for cancer immunotherapies.

But Roy doesn’t have a Ph.D. in emissions certification.

And so, an electronics compliance expert from another company at the research park was going to stop by Skroot’s lab and offer some help.

That’s just one reason the research park is a good place to grow a faculty startup, said Reuel, the Stanley Chair in Interdisciplinary Engineering in the department of chemical and biological engineering who currently has two companies based at the park.

“The research park has a lot of companies that are here for each other,” said Reuel, who liked what he saw of Iowa State startup support when he visited campus years ago as a corporate technology scout. “In this ecosystem, everybody is ‘Iowa nice.’ It’s like borrowing a cup of sugar from your neighbor. It’s invaluable.”

Read full article

Originally published by Iowa State University in March 2026.