Will gigantic genetically modified legs become the next performance enhancer for athletes?
Writing in Science Transitional Medicine, a team of scientists from Nation Wide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, report that a new gene therapy has created both more muscle, and stronger muscle, in the legs of test monkeys. The altered gene controls expression of a protein that blocks the action of a chemical that naturally degrades muscle mass. The new genes were injected directly into the monkey’s legs, and took effect locally.
Needless to say, with professional athletes showing a willingness to inject red blood cells, take copious amounts of speed, and ingest whatever their cousin just brought back from the Dominican Republic, worries have already cropped up that this breakthrough will find its way into the world of sports.
The World Anti-Doping Authority has already outlawed gene doping, but then again, steroids were also banned when superstars like Floyd Landis and A-Rod took them.
[Science Transitional Medicine, via New Scientist]
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