Chasing Cheaters

August 11, 2008

Over the past few weeks, even before the torch was lit, dozens of athletes from around the world have tested positive for banned drugs and have been barred from the Beijing Olympics. . . . The latest enhancement trend is gene doping. This approach involves injecting the body with a gene that triggers growth in specific tissues such as muscle. Because the muscle increase isn’t produced by a foreign substance, but by the body’s own genetic instructions, it could be very difficult to detect in a test. (Baltimore Sun)