Impact case study database

The King’s College London DCC seeks to protect both the integrity of sport and the health of athletes and is the only WADA accredited laboratory in the UK. The DCC aims to increase awareness of the danger of doping for the health of those participating in sport at any level and keep up with the multifaceted technical nature of cheating in sport to ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of the fight against doping. The DCC has collaborated with key actors in the anti-doping world, ensuring that cutting edge science remains effectively employed in practice and policy.

Shaping world class testing

As the only testing centre accredited by WADA in the UK, the DCC has, since 1978, provided robust and trusted analytical services. Due to the high quality of work and their impact on standing in the anti-doping community, the total number of samples collected and analysed by the DCC continues to rise year on year. In 2015, the DCC analysed 8,800 samples, whilst in 2018 this number had increased to 12,587 samples, demonstrating that professional sports bodies are increasingly acknowledging the importance of testing athletes as a deterrent to the use of performance enhancing drugs. Using the accredited laboratories at King’s as an advanced and trusted testing site, DCC research has impacted the shape and trajectory of testing in the UK.

King’s researchers have a proven track record in hGH research [2,3,4]. Working closely with WADA the DCC team developed a new methodological approach to test for hGH, the Human Growth Hormone (hGH) Biomarkers Test. This test was incorporated into guidelines published by WADA in 2015 for all anti-doping laboratories through across the world [A]. These guidelines provide the regulatory documents, implementation processes and monitoring procedures to ensure that tests are carried out systematically and that a harmonised approach is taken across all test centres. As the Senior Deputy Director of the Science and Medicine department at WADA acknowledges, “the research output of the DCC was pivotal in the establishment of legally defensible biomarker scores and the implementation of the WADA Guidelines - Human Growth Hormone (hGH) Biomarkers Test in 2015” [B]. [text removed for publication]

Appropriate long-term storage and further analysis of archived samples collected from athletes has emerged as an important factor in the protection of clean sport. Under the World Anti-Doping Code, samples can be stored for up to 10 years after their initial analysis and still retain the same legal impact if analysed further retrospectively. Taking advantage of DCC research to improve techniques and detect novel compounds, King’s researchers have been able to conduct enhanced retrospective analysis on over 100 samples, with more planned.

Shaping practice and policy in UK anti-doping (UKAD)

UKAD, as the organisation responsible for protecting sport in the UK from doping, works towards ‘protecting the right to participate in clean sport’. The DCC is the predominant laboratory used by UKAD for the analysis of athlete samples with the aim of catching those in sport who cheat.

In 2018, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport published a ‘Tailored Review of UKAD’ [D] which contained an assessment of current services along with 45 recommendations for the future. The report highlighted the close partnership between the UKAD and the DCC, stating the King’s centre as the “most impressive example and contributes to the UK’s international standing in sport and anti-doping” [D]. The report recommended a 50% increase in testing across sport, and in January 2018, the UK Government gave UK anti-doping a £6 million funding boost to educate athletes, share intelligence and conduct testing in the fight against drug cheats to keep sport clean [E]. As a result, the number of samples analysed by the DCC has increased to nearly 13,000 in 2019. [text removed for publication].

Shaping antidoping testing at key events

The DCC has provided the analytical science to ensure that high class anti-doping is provided at the world’s premier sporting events to maintain fairness and safety. After successfully supporting testing at the London 2012 Olympic Games the DCC team have gone on to support the development of policy, practice and process in a variety of settings.

For example, King’s research has ensured that major games now use techniques from mass spectrometry, detecting peptide and growth hormones more effectively. Former director of the Brazilian Doping Control Laboratory noted that “the breakthrough of growth hormone exogenous administration detection for the first time in 2012, showed the athletic community that the era of protein doping was due to be over” [G]. As a result, more compounds were tested at the 2016 Rio Games than any other previous games ensuring that the health of the athletes and tests conducted are of the highest ethical standard, giving confidence to individual athletes that major competitions are as fair as possible.

By providing communication skills, laboratory organisation, procurement processes, training of personnel and volunteers, researcher exchanges and advanced training the DCC significantly impacted on the preparations and processes during the Games. As the former director of the Brazilian Doping Control Laboratory stated “this sizeable contribution of Professor Cowan, the DCC and King´s College London surely had an impact on the quality of the doping control analysis performed at the Rio 2016 games” [G]. The Independent observer for the Rio 2016 Olympic Laboratory report stated “the laboratory was superbly equipped, operated very securely and generally very efficiently, and now represents an outstanding legacy from the Games for the anti-doping movement in South America” [M].

In addition, the King’s team impacted on the preparations for the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games 2018. As stated by the former head of the South Korean WADA laboratory at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul, the DCC were “key in helping us to fulfil our work to the international standard required… for the preparation of 2018 Games, I have made the contract with [DCC] for solution of WADA ISL requirements in staff, facility, security and scientific methods. They were involved in training our staffs, designing document systems for traceability of overall process of sample analysis, preparing WADA site visits, and defending WADA reports requested after the result of the site visit… [the DCC] was the best supporter to us in advising and suggesting the technical solutions of the sample analysis for its successful achievement” [H].

Investigating doping violations - Russia

Following a 2014 German TV documentary which contained allegations of widespread doping in Russia, WADA established an Independent Commission (IC) to conduct an investigation into the allegedly corrupt practices around sample collection and results management that implicated athletes, coaches, trainers, and doctors, as well as the accredited laboratory based in Moscow and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) in doping violations. As one of the most important events in the world-wide anti-doping community for many years, the WADA President appointed Professor Richard McLaren to lead the IC, with findings reported in 2015 and 2016 [I].

King’s researchers contributed significantly to the IC, utilising new research and techniques to provide validated methodologies which could detect sample manipulation with salt [J], and urine swapping through DNA analysis [7]. Prof McLaren turned to the DCC since they either “had in their repertoire of analytical methods or rapidly developed methods that provided me with legally defensible evidence that samples had been manipulated as claimed by Dr Rodchenkov. This greatly assisted me in proving the involvement of individuals who could then be identified in my formal and public reports” [K].

The IC ultimately proved systematic cheating and a universal ban was placed on Russian athletes participating in worldwide sporting events such as Rio 2016 Olympics and Paralympics [L] as well as the WADA accreditation of the Moscow Laboratory being revoked. As noted by Prof McLaren “Without the assistance of the Drug Control Centre, my investigation would at best have been delayed and possibly may not have been able to reach the clear conclusions as published… I am very indebted to the DCC for the very significant contributions they made to my work” [K].

These events had a huge impact on international sport, demonstrating to the world that the fight against doping is being taken incredibly seriously, and those who seek to subvert the system, no matter how powerful, will be heavily sanctioned. As a result, large organisations such as WADA and the International Olympic Committee have reiterated their critical commitment to the maintenance of fairness in competition, where King’s researchers continue to play a key role.