Nottingham researchers agree deal on anti-doping test

Researchers at Nottingham University have developed a new, highly sensitive, anti-doping steroid test using hydropyrolysis. They are currently working with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to develop the technique for trial and have agreed a partnership with Strata Technology Ltd, a specialist  in high pressure equipment, to commercialise the technique.

The test is expected to be ready for use in the 2012 London Olympics, and uses high pressure environments to investigate the chemical structure and make-up of a urine sample.

The original work on which the test is based was funded by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council. It used hydropyrolysis to reconstruct the history of ocean basins to help assess whether an area was worth drilling for oil. By taking core samples over geological time, the technique can detect the first ’charge’, or presence, of oil.

But the same process can be used to detect the presence of illicit steroids in the urine of athletes and racehorses. High pressure hydrogen is used to bombard the sample at pressures of 150 atmospheres and temperatures of up to 500 degrees Celsius. This leaves sample molecules in a cleaner, less degraded state than other extraction techniques, allowing more accurate readings to be taken. Carbon isotopes are then measured, with the results showing the ratios of carbon 12 and carbon 13 in the sample.

Colin Snape, Professor of Chemical Technology and Chemical Engineering at the university, said, “Steroids are produced naturally in the body, but they have a different carbon 13 to carbon 12 ratios from those that have been introduced illicitly. By refining the measurements of these two isotopes we can produce a very accurate test for the presence of illegal steroids in athletes.”