Dr. John Eiler is the Robert P. Sharp Professor of Geology and Geochemistry, as well as the Ted and Ginger Jenkins Leadership Chair of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech. In this episode, John discusses his career, his research examining the molecular structure of isotopes, and how the approach that he and his collaborators have developed is relevant for the anti-doping community. He goes into detail on a recent PCC-funded research project investigating the use of molecular isotopic structure as a tool for doping forensics, their promising new results, and the impacts that this work could have to advance clean sport.
In the second episode of our two-episode mini-series featuring Biotage, Esraa AboJasser and Dr. Lee Williams share more detail about their work, particularly in the North America region. Biotage is a global supplier and solutions partner to a wide range of customers within drug discovery, drug development, and analytical testing. The company's products and solutions are critical for anti-doping laboratories, scientists conducting anti-doping research, and labs across a variety of other fields. This episode explores Biotage's consumable products, their activities in North America, their educational endeavors, the company's goals for the future, preparations for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, and more. Esraa is Market and Applications Manager in Analytical Testing at Biotage, and Lee is Director of R&D for Analytical Consumables and Applications at Biotage.
In this episode, Monika Vezse and Dr. Lee Williams joined us to talk about their work at Biotage, a global supplier and solutions partner to a wide range of customers within drug discovery, drug development, and analytical testing. The company's portfolio includes products and solutions that are critical for anti-doping laboratories and scientists conducting anti-doping research. This is the first episode of a two-episode mini-series with Biotage team members, and this episode focuses on introducing the company, sharing it's history, talking about some of their products, and describing their work to support anti-doping efforts in the Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region. Monika is the EMEA Market Segment and Application Lab Manager for Analytical Testing & Diagnostics at Biotage, and Lee is Director of R&D for Analytical Consumables and Applications at Biotage.
Shannon Rowbury is an accomplished elite U.S. track athlete and three-time Olympian. She is an Olympic bronze medalist, two-time World bronze medalist, World Record Holder in the distance medley relay, former American record holder in the 1,500 meter, 2 mile, and 5,000 meter races, and she has been ranked among the top ten female track athletes in the world for a decade. In addition, Shannon is a Managing Partner at West Strategy Group and co-founder and President of Imagining More, a non-profit organization that promotes arts and athletics for youth. She is also an Emmy-Award winning broadcaster, she's been an in-stadium announcer, and Track & Field analyst. In this episode, Shannon discusses her career, her commitment to clean sport, and her experiences surrounding the 2012 Olympic Games in London. After crossing the finish line in sixth place in that race, Shannon has now officially been recognized as the bronze medalist after multiple competitors were disqualified for doping.
Rahul Gupta, MD, MPH, MBA, FACP, is a physician, President of GATC Health Corp, and the former Director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). He was the first medical doctor to lead ONDCP, and he served as the Director from November 2021 - January 2025. Through his work, particularly at ONDCP, Dr. Gupta has made important contributions to protecting public health, which is an important component of the PCC's mission. In this interview, he discussed drug control policy in the U.S., positive outcomes from the initiatives he has led, his role in safeguarding clean sport, his experience as keynote speaker at our recent PCC Conference, and his current innovative endeavors in drug discovery and healthcare.
Dr. Lori Bestervelt is Senior Vice President of Certification Services at TruShield Certified and a member of the PCC's Scientific Advisory Board. She was previously Chief Science Officer at NSF International for 22 years, and she has over 20 years of experience in sport certification programs. Dr. Bestervelt discussed the importance of banned substance certification, the gap in the market that TruShield Certified was created to address, the kinds of products they test and certify, how the certification process works, collaborations with other stakeholders in the anti-doping community, and more.
John Hertig, PharmD, MS, CPPS, FASHP, is Founder of Hertig Healthcare Advising and former faculty in the Pharmacy Practice Department in the Butler University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. He is also Past-President and a current Board of Directors member of the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies and is a Member of the United States Food and Drug Administration Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee. In this episode, he discusses his career, the online pharmacy landscape, the challenges and risks associated with illegal online pharmacies, how athletes and others can help keep themselves safe when accessing medications online, and more.
Dr. Kevin Murray is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Integrative Physiology of Aging Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the recipient of this year's PCC-sponsored Anti-Doping Postdoctoral Award in partnership with the American Physiological Society (APS). In this episode, we discuss his career path and his research, particularly focusing on his recent work studying the role extracellular vesicles may play in modulating arterial function. This research is critical for understanding the potential performance-enhancing effects of emerging extracellular vesicle therapies.
Dan Burke is the Intelligence and Investigations Director at the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). In this episode, he describes USADA's approach, tactics, and tools, for anti-doping investigations, including work in the area of cybercrime and online investigations. He also shares insights and experiences from his nearly three decades working in U.S. federal law enforcement, including his prior role as Division Chief at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations, where he focused on the manufacturing of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, designer steroids, and tainted dietary supplements.
Dr. Sven Voss is Director of the Institute of Doping Analysis and Sports Biochemistry (IDAS) – Dresden, a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited doping control laboratory in Germany. In this interview, he described his career path and his experiences working at multiple anti-doping labs around the world. In particular, he provided insights on IDAS – Dresden, including its history, their routine anti-doping work, and ongoing research projects on erythropoietin (EPO), blood doping, and other areas.
Dr. Vinod Nair is Associate Laboratory Director of the WADA-Accredited Sports Medicine and Research Testing Laboratory (SMRTL). In this episode, Vinod covers how anti-doping labs strive to provide efficient and cost-effective services while maintaining the rigor and quality standards required in the industry. He explains how SMRTL incorporates automation into their lab's work and shares his thoughts on the future of automation in anti-doping laboratories. We also discussed recent research that he and colleagues published examining minimum reporting limits to determine in-competition use of stimulants.
Dr. Trine Grønhaug Halvorsen is Professor in the Section for Pharmaceutical Chemistry within the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Oslo in Norway. In this episode, she talks about her research on dried blood spot sampling, detecting peptide doping agents in anti-doping samples, and development of smart samplers, which incorporate the initial sample preparation steps into the collection device.
Dr. Sophia Krombholz is a PCC Fellow and a Research Scientist and Research Associate at the Manfred Donike Institute for Doping Analysis in Cologne, Germany. In this episode, Sophia discusses her career path, her PCC-funded fellowship project, and other exciting anti-doping research. Dr. Krombholz's fellowship project is investigating the metabolism of anabolic steroids administered through alternative routes (transdermally or buccally) and has yielded interesting results that may help inform the interpretation of findings from anti-doping tests.
Dr. Olivier Salamin is the Operational Manager of the Lausanne Athlete Passport Management Unit (APMU) within the Swiss Laboratory for Doping Analyses at the Lausanne University Hospital (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire vaudois/CHUV). In this episode, he discussed his career and research on the discovery and validation of biomarkers to detect prohibited substances and methods, particularly related to the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP). He also gives us an inside look at the history and operations of the Lausanne APMU.
Dr. Andy Hoofnagle is a researcher, professor, board certified pathologist, and laboratory director at the University of Washington. He is Head of the Division of Chemistry, Director of Chemistry at the UW Medical Center - Montlake, Director of Clinical Mass Spectrometry, and Director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center's Analytic Core at the University of Washington. He is also Chair of the PCC's Collagen Turnover Working Group. In this episode, he discusses his research and recent advances in the ability to detect growth hormone administration using biomarkers of collagen turnover. We also discussed Dr. Hoofnagle's role as a mentor for PCC Research Fellow Dr. Huu Hien Huynh and his experience as a presenter at our 2025 PCC Conference.
Dr. Maria Kristina Parr is a Professor in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Freie Universität Berlin. In this interview, she discusses her research that has focused on understanding the metabolism of steroids and other compounds and improving our ability to detect these substances and their metabolites for anti-doping and other purposes. We covered the results from several of her latest papers, including work examining food sources of ecdysterone, metabolism of topically administered steroids in skin cells, metabolism of endogenous versus exogenous steroids, and more.
This episode features Jude Ellis, Head of Anti-Doping at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). She discusses her background, the history of the IPC, and the IPC's Anti-Doping team's responsibilities for the Paralympic Games and beyond. Our conversation also gives a brief overview of the IPC Code and covers major accomplishments related to recent anti-doping testing surrounding the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
Professor Ian Boardley is the Head of Impact & Engagement, Professor in Sport and Exercise Psychology, and Chair of the Health and Safety Committee for the College of Life and Environmental Sciences in the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Birmingham in the UK. In this episode, he discusses his research on the psychosocial processes governing moral behavior in sport and physical activity. In particular, he covers some of the important research studies he has conducted on moral disengagement in sport, anabolic-androgenic steroid dependence and craving, anti-doping education, and other areas.
Dr. Tina Suominen is Director of the Helsinki Doping Control Laboratory within the Forensic Chemistry Unit at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in Helsinki, Finland. In this episode, she discusses her role as Director of a WADA-Accredited Anti-Doping Laboratory, the lab's history (including a major move and re-accreditation), and the latest research and methods development projects she and her colleagues have been working on in the lab.
Dr. Brad Johnson is the Gordon W. Davis Regent's Chair in Meat Science and Muscle Biology and Professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Texas Tech University. In this episode, Brad discusses his research on muscle growth and development in meat animals, as well as potential contamination of meat with growth promoters that are relevant for anti-doping. In particular, he shares findings from a recent study, funded by the Partnership for Clean Competition, that examined residues of prohibited anabolic agents in the meat supply chain.