The man described as the "guru of sports doping" and an East Coast cancer detection expert said they're on the way to establishing a urine test for human growth hormone that could close a drug-testing loophole experts described Monday as a "widespread" problem in sports.
Don Catlin, a Los Angeles-based worldwide doping expert who oversaw blood testing for HGH at the Beijing Olympics, and Dr. Lance Liotta, a former pathology lab chief at the National Cancer Institute's Center for Cancer Research, have launched a study to build upon Liotta's ability to identify isolated markers of HGH in urine.
"This is a groundbreaking step that'll change the game a bit," Catlin said Monday at a first-ever Growth Hormone Summit staged at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Although baseball's union has maintained resistance to submitting players to HGH blood tests, the breakthrough has excited anti-doping and baseball officials who attended Monday's meeting.
Catlin's anti-doping research is entering the third year of work on a three-year, $450,000 grant by Major League Baseball to establish whether an HGH urine test is possible. He received identical funding from the NFL players' union.
Baseball officials who weren't allowed to discuss the situation publicly told The Times the Catlin-Liotta partnership now is poised to be "at the front of the line" when the Partnership for Clean Competition -- consisting of MLB, NFL and the U.S. Olympic Committee -- begins to distribute funds from a pool of $10 million later this year.
Liotta, a professor at George Mason University, said he has arranged a study of students there that will analyze their natural HGH levels in blood and urine. The study will seek to establish a baseline standard that can be compared for instances when an abundance of synthetic HGH, prescribed mostly for AIDS patients and individuals with dwarfism, is found in the system.
Cautioning that such research is conducted "in fits and starts," UCLA professor Gary Green, the summit director who serves as MLB's consultant on performance-enhancing drugs, said a realistic timeline for HGH urine testing would be the 2012 Summer Games in London.
The clock will tick amid abuses, summit attendees warned.
"Growth hormone promotes muscle mass and reduces fat mass . . . and is widely used by athletes," Dr. Richard I.G. Holt of England's University of Southampton said.
