Gene Doping

[TheGreenMonkey]

What proof do people have that Yohann is doping?

 

[luckyboy]

Re:

I don't think this will be at Rio, or indeed the 2020 games.

ta-daa http://cyclingtips.com/2016/07/new-gene-doping-test-to-be-retroactively-applied-to-rio-olympic-samples/

Technically you are correct, just after Rio they will retro-test

 

[budegan]

Why isn't this topic causing more Clinic excitement? Could it not explain Froome?

 

[el_giles]

Not gene related or even doping related but certainly bizarre...... "body mods"

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-06/sophie-cape-says-experimental-surgeries-left-her-scarred/8189094?section=sport

And surgically enhancing arteries presumably to improve blood flow to the desired muscle group... wonder if this has been used in others with the primary aim being... performance gains.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Once the bogeyman du jour, things have been pretty quiet on the gene doping front in recent years - is that all about to change?

The agency first started developing ways to detect gene doping more than a decade ago, but only began testing for one kind of gene therapy last year.

Blood samples from athletes who competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics are now being tested for added copies of a gene coding for EPO, a hormone that boost red blood cell levels. No positive results have yet been announced.

Gene editing should be even harder to detect than conventional gene therapies like this. Gene editing should make it possible to make tiny alterations to DNA in existing genes, or to just temporarily boost or switch off the activity of particular genes. What’s more, these tweaks can be restricted to specific tissues such as muscle, meaning the changes may not show up in blood tests.

In theory, the “biological passports” introduced by WADA in 2009 should reveal any unexpected changes in an athlete’s body, even if gene doping itself cannot be detected. But any would-be cheats smart enough to resort to gene editing may be able to find ways round this.