Kicking drugs out of sport with Kicman
Six weeks on from our fourth Innovation Academy scientific symposium at the Grocer’s Hall in London, we look more closely at the work of Dr Andrew Kicman as one of Viapath’s future leaders questions him on a range of topics to do with drugs in sport and on his career in toxicology.
Below is a taste of the interview and directions to where you can find the full transcript, enjoy!
- Do you see drugs in sport as a continual arms race with testing always playing catch-up to new substances?
No, I do not think it is playing catch-up. There are always new substances to deal with, but often laboratories are anticipating what these substances may be and developing analytical approaches to detect their administration....
- How soon can a substance be added to the banned list from the beginning of development of an assay for its detection?
This can be well within a year, if the substance is a small xenobiotic molecule that can be detected by chromatography-mass spectrometry and especially if labs have a chemical standard to work with....
- Some banned substances have been shown to be present in food, for example clenbuterol in meat; do assays always have the power to differentiate between accidental and purposeful ingestion of such substances?
The simple answer is no, not yet and most likely not unequivocally for a long time. This problem may become a major challenge....
- Do scientists involved in testing feel frustrated when positive samples are appealed, and sometimes overturned on technicalities?
My opinion is that as an athlete’s career may be on the line, the system has to allow for such challenges and good science will always win in the end....
To read the full interview with Dr Andrew Kicman and Robert Dunn from our Future Leaders in Innovation Group, visit our Innovation Academy page on the Viapath website (link below), scroll down and click on ‘Dr Andrew Kicman’ to reveal the link to the PDF file.
Click here to visit the Innovation Academy Webpage
On this page you will also find biographies of each of our speakers along with abstracts and full audio recordings of their presentations from the Innovation Academy – Next Generation Diagnostics.
