Rather than injecting performance enhancing drugs, gene doping seeks to tweak cells so that they produce the substances naturally. This makes it undetectable using standard tests. Athletes at the Rio Olympic Games will be tested for the first time for “gene doping”, a highly sophisticated cheating technique that improves performance by altering competitors’ DNA. However, scientists have said that a test has been developed to spot the gene cheats, and it will be applied for the first time at next month’s Games. “We feel there is a great risk that these novel technologies will be used,” Carl Sundberg, an exercise…

Source: The Times July 26, 2016 22:59 UTC