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Going for the gold: lab expands to meet Olympic challenge
By Cynthia Cai
Marketing Operations Manager, Chemical Analysis Solutions
With medals on the line, Olympic doping tests are perhaps the ultimate analytical challenge for speed, sensitivity, and accuracy. For the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the China Anti-Doping Agency will meet this demanding situation head-on with a new, much larger lab where 90% of the instrumentation is from Agilent.
Thousands of samples
Six members of China’s Anti-Doping Agency recently visited Agilent sites in the United States, and they described the tremendous feat they will accomplish during the upcoming Olympics.
The lab will analyze more than 4,500 samples from athletes – 800 samples more than during the 2004 Summer Games in Athens. Analysts will use state-of-the-art Agilent liquid chromatography (LC), gas chromatography (GC) and mass spectrometry (MS) instruments to search for banned substances in samples from every gold-medal winner and every athlete who breaks an Olympic record; for some events, they will test the top three to eight athletes. And they will begin random testing of athletes outside of the actual competition, as soon as they begin to arrive in July.
Long list of banned substances
The Beijing lab will test for more than 180 different substances within each sample, including more than 50 stimulants and 60 steroids. Because many of the steroids occur naturally in the body, the challenge is to recognize the levels that are just above normal. This complex process mandates proper sample preparation, accurate analysis, and trained staff to interpret the thousands of analytical reports and to separate the negatives from potential positives.
A race in the lab every single day
The new lab expects to handle a staggering 200 to 300 samples per day, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) requires that analysts execute the initial testing of each sample within 24 hours. If the sample tests positive, they have another 24 hours to confirm or refute the result.
To further complicate the situation, the chemical diversity of banned substances means that the lab must analyze each sample by multiple instrumental techniques. Each sample is first split into two parts. One part is sealed and retained for future potential disputes from the athlete. The second part is divided into multiple sub-samples, which the lab analyzes within 24 hours for:
- Stimulants
- Narcotics
- Anabolic agents/steroids
- Diuretics
- Peptide hormones and related substances
- Other drugs such as marijuana
Uncompromising performance and reliability
Against this backdrop of analytical complexity and rapid sample turn-around, Du Lijun of China’s Anti-Doping Agency emphasized that they need instrumentation that will deliver speed, sensitivity, and accuracy. To that end, Agilent will provide 18 LC/MS systems and 19 GC/MS systems for doping tests at the 2008 Olympic Games. These include:
In addition, Agilent will have technical staff on call 24 hours a day in support of this monumental effort.
Ready for the world
When Olympic dreams are at risk, every analysis must be correct and completed in record time. The China Anti-Doping Agency will be ready for this intense challenge with one of the largest and most advanced testing facilities in the world, and the lab will be backed by Agilent’s 30-year tradition of providing instrumentation and support for drug testing at the Olympic Games.
If your business is drug testing or forensic analysis, visit our drug testing Web page to access reference information and application notes from our industry experts.
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