Three questions to ice-hockey champ Mats Sundin…
One of the researchers behind a recent study in the journal Cell, Sophie Petropoulos, has a scholarship from the Mats Sundin Fellowship Programme (MSF) – a research partnership between Karolinska Institutet and the University of Toronto founded by the former member of the national ice-hockey squad and NHL professional, Mats Sundin.
How does it feel to have MSF contribute to the study?
“It’s incredibly inspiring that the MSF can show such amazing results so soon after starting up. Sophie’s work shows that with the right partnership, the right type of fundraising and, above all, the right attitude and motivation you can quickly produce great results.”
Why are you engaged in the research?
“The MSF has given me a fantastic opportunity to give something back to Toronto, where I played hockey for 13 years, and to Stockholm, where I was brought up. Research and elite sport have many similarities and parallels, and that attracted me. After having met some of the skilled scientists working at Karolinska Institutet and the University of Toronto, I decided that this was the right way to give something back.”
What do you hope to achieve?
“The aim of the MSF is to continue to raise funds so that we can give scientists like Sophie the chance to probe their field more deeply, and develop their research and themselves as scientists. We’re setting up a Canadian foundation, a website, and hope to have everything ready for the next MSF event, which will take place during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto this September.”
Text: Heléne Almqvist (in translation from Swedish)
More reading: "Fresh insights into early human embryo development"
MSF postoc Sophie Petropoulos from Toronto and her Swedish PIs Fredrik Lanner and Rickard Sandberg. In a new study in the journal Cell, they show that there are considerable differences in embryonic development between humans and mice.