Anti-doping Lab Set for Olympics

The most high-tech laboratory in the history of the Olympic Games is prepared to begin athlete testing in London.

Written byJef Akst

| 1 min read

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A new lab in Essex, United Kingdom, that will operate 24 hours a day during the 2012 London Summer Olympics and perform more anti-doping tests than any other games was unveiled today (January 19). The plan is to test every medalist and more than half of all Olympic competitors—more than 400 samples each day and more than 6,000 in total, Daily Mail reported—returning results within 1-3 days.

The lab—donated and equipped by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline—will be staffed by an international team of more than 150 anti-doping scientists as well as hundreds volunteers, led by David Cowan from King's College London. After collecting and processing the athletes’ samples, the lab will employ “super-fast and super-sensitive technologies to be able to detect the use of prohibited substances,” ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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