The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) considers gene doping a developing threat and has pledged to pursue detection methods and enforcement policies to ensure that the practice "never becomes a major issue in sport," an agency spokesperson said following a symposium in Stockholm, Sweden.

The December 4-5 meeting, held in collaboration with the Karolinska Institute and the Swedish Sports Confederation, was the second such sponsored by WADA, the first being a March 2002 workshop in New York.

The Stockholm meeting brought together more than 50 participants from 15 countries and included geneticists and other biomedical scientists, ethicists, public policy experts, representatives of the International Olympic Committee, and the broad international sports community.

"This symposium has helped us measure the progress of gene therapy and of detection methods for the potential misuse of gene doping by athletes, as well as broaden our perspective of the global issue," said Dr Olivier Rabin, WADA science director. "Most experts do not think that gene transfer is being used by athletes yet. But we know that some athletes may be tempted to use it one day to enhance their performance. That is why WADA takes the issue so seriously."

The participants agreed, among other things, that:

Gene transfer procedures that are not fully compliant with established standards of human clinical research and human experimentation should be considered medical malpractice and/or professional misconduct.

The sports community, professional scientific organizations, licensing agencies and clinical research oversight bodies should be encouraged to stimulate awareness of the potential illicit use of gene transfer techniques for athletic and other enhancement purposes and to develop appropriate sanctioning mechanisms for their illegal/or unethical application in sport.

Academic, private and government research organizations should be encouraged to dedicate resources to further progress to deter gene doping.

"We will continue to work hard and to dedicate significant resources to the development of detection methods and policies so that gene doping never becomes a major issue in sport," said Karolinska Institutet’s professor Arne Ljungqvist, chair of the WADA Health, Medical and Research Committee.

"The symposium has sent a further shot across the bow of those who think we will not be able to detect gene doping," added professor Theodore Friedmann, chair of the WADA Gene Doping Panel. "My advice to them is: Don’t be so sure. This is a very dangerous road to proceed on, and we will be ready to halt the traffic."

For more information on gene doping, visit WADA's Web site at www.wada-ama.org.