6 February 2010 / REUTERS, CHICAGO
Gene therapy offers Olympic athletes a tempting new way to go for the gold, but the technology is far too risky a way to cheat, a top gene therapy expert said on Thursday.
Gene doping -- in which DNA is introduced into the body through an inactivated virus or by other means -- can alter a person’s genetic make up and improve athletic performance by building muscle and increasing blood flow. “We know we can introduce genes now to correct disease. It’s not a great leap to say we can also change genes related to normal human performance, like those required for athletic performance,” said Dr. Ted Friedmann, director of the Center for Molecular Genetics at the University of California’s San Diego’s School of Medicine. But the risks could be dear, he said, noting that some patients have died in gene therapy studies. “It’s almost guaranteed to be dangerous with the current technology. It would be very foolish for any athlete to allow it to be done to him or herself,” said Friedmann, a scientific adviser to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) who wrote a commentary in the journal Science. “In the case of participating trainers or doctors, it would constitute professional or medical malpractice, at least in my view,” Friedmann said in a telephone interview.
