Gene doping looms as the next big cheat

“Bionic man is not far away”.

That’s the assessment of World Anti-Doping Agency director-general David Howman as his organisation prepares to deal with the onset of gene doping.

The process involves DNA being introduced to change a person’s genetic make-up and improve athletic performance through muscle growth, blood production and endurance.

Original lab tests resulted in what were coined “Schwarzenegger mice” and “marathon mice”. Cheats pricked up their ears.

Genes are generally injected into muscle or blood via an inactive virus. They can permanently alter the human genome (the library of an organism’s hereditary information). Drug Free Sport New Zealand boss Graeme Steel refers to the process as “a footprint you can’t get rid of”.

The practice began to help people heal quicker, especially in relation to muscle deterioration. A BBC radio documentary in December detailed how gene therapists treat sick children at London’s Great Ormond Street hospital – they add a synthetic gene to the patient’s genome.

The new gene is expressed by the patient’s cells and acts like a medicine, permanently incorporated in the bone marrow.

WADA banned gene doping in 2003. Howman believes it’s an area of the doping market where they have parity with cheats: “We formed a sub-committee of outstanding gene therapists back then to work on where the process was going medically. Our scientists, who are from the health companies putting this sort of medicine together, believe they’re onto something in terms of detection. TRUNews