Subject: Final Project Report for Professors Around the World (PAW) – Joshua A. Cotter, Sweden

To Whom It May Concern,

This report is to detail the activities that took place in June of 2016 at the Karolinska Medical

Institute of Sweden in accordance with the Professors Around the World global faculty incentive grants

program. The main reason for this trip was to work with Drs. Per Tesch, Tommy Lundberg and Rodrigo

Fernandez Gonzalo in the development of research collaborations, learning of new research

developments, and creation of study abroad opportunities. Dr. Lundberg was my main host for the trip

and my expectations were highly exceeded.

My visit started with a full day retreat for the Division of Clinical Physiology headed by Dr.

Thomas Gustafsson. During this retreat, members of the division discussed current and future research

agendas, reviewed pertinent information from the American College of Sports Medicine Annual

Conference (in which I was present in Boston, MA), and accomplished important tasks related to

preparations for their upcoming courses. During this retreat, I gave a presentation introducing California

State University, Long Beach, the College of Health and Human Services, the Department of Kinesiology,

and an overview of our current and past Physiology of EXercise and Sport (PEXS) lab research activities.

The presentation led to an interesting dialogue with faculty members about the contrast in cultures at

the two universities with Karolinska being more research/clinical focuses and CSULB more towards

teaching (yet each university balancing aspects of each). Hearing about both the quality and quantity of

research being produced was truly inspiring. Additionally, I enjoyed seeing how the whole division meets

to discuss their courses rather than just being an individual faculty member’s responsibility. For

example, at the retreat, members of the division spent a few hours where individuals and small groups

in the whole division came up with new questions for a large lecture course that is taught. I also had a

one-on-one conversation with a faculty member who has made some great progress in the development

of MOOCs (massive open online courses) which gave me some examples to help with my own

conversions of traditional face-to-face courses to online and hybrid versions.

The rest of the visit consisted of in-depth visits of research laboratories across the campus. This

was an amazing experience for me as the Karolinska Institute has a rich history of publishing top-ranked

research with the realm of Exercise Physiology. In addition to seeing the lab setup and workflows

associated with Drs. Gustafsson and Lundberg’s lab, I was put into contact with Drs. Håkan Westerblad

and Ola Eiken. Dr. Westerblad gave me some excellent insight into single muscle fiber physiology and

the effects of reactive oxygen species and satellite cells as well as where research in this area is going

and what we should be examining. Dr. Eiken is the head of the Swedish Aerospace Physiology Centre

where there is outstanding research facilities regarding respiratory pressure chambers and a large

centrifuge; both for performing research with humans regarding spaceflight. Finally, I spent the day with

Dr. Gonzalo observing and taking part in an ongoing study looking at flywheel exercise and patients with

cerebral palsy. This was quite an idea stimulator for me as I have worked with research regarding

cerebral palsy patients and flywheel exercise separately but never together. Lastly, Dr. Gustafsson was

very supportive in creating a collaboration between our two universities and has graciously offered to

help analyze my muscle samples using arrays. They will also provide funding to help me accomplish this.

Finally, I met with Kristina Jesinkey, International Coordinator, about the development of study

abroad programs which the Karolinska Institute actively takes part in. After much discussion, we both

felt like development of study abroad programs for CSULB students involved in clinical type areas such

as Physical Therapy (many Exercise Science students choose this route) and Nursing would be the most

feasible due to the heavy clinical aspect of teaching at Karolinska. I will be moving forward by speaking

with my Department Chair, Dr. Jan Schroeder, as well as faculty members in Physical Therapy.

In conclusion, this was a remarkable experience that I feel has really opened up many new

opportunities available to enhance both my own educational and research agendas as well as create

exciting new programs for CSULB students. Thank you so much for providing this program!

_____________________________

Joshua A. Cotter, PhD, Exercise Physiology