Since 2018, the so-called genetic scissors, which can be useful against diseases, have been banned by Wada and are considered doping.
Genetic scissors can alter the genome of all kinds of living organisms with great precision.
Through genetic scissors, one can change a person's genes and improve parts that have a worse effect than others, a tickling thought to improve the characteristics of athletes at the elite level.
Åke Andrén-Sandberg, chairman of the doping commission, explains how the process works and the danger with it:
- Once you have cut off those pieces, you may not be able to put them in the same place again, it is not really that easy.
In all research, it is wonderful to be able to do things like this, says Sandberg.
What could it mean for sports from a doping perspective?
- Seen from a doping perspective, there are almost no limits to what you can do.
If there is someone who wants to devote themselves to making a quality better, there are now quite a lot of opportunities, but I am not saying that it is easy.
"Almost everything in medicine can be abused"
What are the dangers given that state-sponsored doping has existed in both East Germany and Russia and that it has also occurred in large bicycle stables?
- Almost everything in medicine can be abused and here a new field has been opened even if it is not new today.
We who have worked in the field have known about this for ten years or even longer and we still cannot see anyone using it.
But theoretically, there is a new way of renaming people that we have not had before.
It is not inconceivable that it will be exploited by some shady types.
Andrén emphasizes that a very large organization is required to be able to carry out gene doping in a secure way, where leaks could easily occur, which has happened in previous revelations about doping.
- It also requires well-educated researchers who know exactly how and where to cut to run such an organization.
In addition, the whole picture of the process is not clear to you.
- With this method you start something but you have to know how to get something to stop as well.
This may mean that this type of doping is still a long way off.
Can this doping be detected?
- It is not possible to see exactly where you cut the scissors, but you can see what effects it has and that you measure it instead, so indirectly you can do it, says Andrén Sandberg and exemplifies with a child with normal parents who becomes 2.5 meters long may look suspicious.
- Then you can suspect that something has happened to the genes or if someone gets six toes to be able to swim better with paddle feet.