Genetic therapy for strength enhancement has potential for abuse, says professor

However, Sweeney warns that there is potential for abuse of "gene doping", particularly by high-level athletes seeking a competitive edge. Although he does not believe that gene doping will be widely prevalent for at least 20 years, he warns that at the highest level competition will drive athletes to seek out similar therapies.

• As the steroid controversy continues to rage through the sports world, a Penn professor is researching a new type of gene therapy that could potentially represent the next wave of performance-enhancing treatments.
• Spurred by watching elderly family members lose their strength, Physiology Department Chairman Lee Sweeney has devised a way to inject genes that promote muscle growth into animals.
• In theory, a similar procedure could promote muscle growth in humans -- an effect which could help those afflicted with muscular dystrophy and other types of muscle-degenerating diseases.
• "These things could be abused by people just looking to enhance their sports performance," Sweeney said, adding that he believes that within the next five years athletes will be attempting to gene dope.
• Although Sweeney has said that he does not believe gene-doping will hit the American market nor make a major impact globally for at least 20 years, he believes that the 2004 Games in Athens will have been the last Olympics untainted by genetically enhanced athletes.
• Conte researched undetectable designer steroids for a variety of high-profile athletes.
• Theodore Friedman -- a gene therapist at the University of California, San Diego and one of the recipients of WADA funding -- believes that the detecting technology is not far behind the gene-doping technology.
• Paul Root Wolpe, senior fellow at the Penn Center for Bioethics, believes that the values surrounding gene therapy's general use should be held distinct from those regarding gene-doping by athletes.
• For now, Sweeney and his colleagues have only been testing muscle-promoting genes in mice and rats, with dogs next on the list of animal subjects.
• Although Sweeney observed no harmful side effects in his lab mice, the possible side effects in humans give rise to serious moral questions.