U. of U. lab detects the elite who cheat

They're hidden behind computerized security doors on the second floor of a nondescript brick building situated amid a maze of look-alikes at the University of Utah's Research Park.
    But the scientists who work at the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory are anything but ordinary.
    Led by lab director Matthew Slawson, they make up one of the world's most advanced drug-testing laboratories, conducting the complex metabolic tests that determine whether superstar football players, professional cyclists and world-class sprinters have used steroids to cheat.
    "We've worked really hard to get where we are," Slawson said.
    The lab - known by the acronym "SMRTL," pronounced like "turtle" - is one of only two in the U.S. and 34 in the world qualified to analyze urine samples from elite athletes to the exacting standards of the World Anti-Doping Agency, having earned its gold-standard accreditation barely a year ago.
    Its only two clients are the National Football League and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which means Slawson and his colleagues may have revealed the anabolic steroid use that earned recent suspensions for Obafemi Ayanbadejo of the Chicago Bears and Ryan Tucker of the Cleveland Browns.
    "We don't ever get any information on names or anything like that," Slawson said.
    Instead, the urine samples the lab analyzes are delivered under the cover of anonymous code numbers, stored in secure and climate-controlled rooms and subjected to a series of tests that take nearly two weeks. The chain of custody is carefully monitored. The scientists must precisely track who handles each sample, and the results are all but unimpeachable.
    "As we look for ways to intensify our efforts in the fight against doping in sports, having greater capacity to reliably analyze tests and conduct research is critical," U.S. Olympic Committee director of sports medicine Ed Ryan said when the lab received accreditation last year.
    The proximity of such a respected laboratory, though, means little in the realm of college drug testing. None of the state's universities - or any university, for that matter - uses it for drug testing.
    One reason is because SMRTL is not open to clients other than the NFL and USADA.
    But even if it were, schools say they cannot afford systematic steroid testing, and it's unnecessary to use such an advanced lab to test for street drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and Ecstasy. Meanwhile, the NCAA runs its drug-testing program through the National Center for Drug-Free Sport, which contracts with a variety of laboratories across the country.
    Still, the lab is a respected element of the sporting landscape in this country. It had its start when it was still housed within the Center for Human Toxicology on campus in 2003, and the university responded to a request from the NFL to conduct research on performance-enhancing drugs. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency became interested and asked the lab to expand into a testing center, Slawson said, and the U.S. Olympic Committee contributed $500,000 to help create it.
    Now, the lab is examining its capacity for growth and using its testing expertise partially as a way to raise money for ongoing research into new technologies and new ways to detect performance-enhancing drugs.
    "We're always trying to do things better than before," Slawson said.
    mcl@sltrib.com
   
   SMRTL in Salt Lake City is one of just two drug-testing labs in the United States accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. It earned its accreditation Nov. 1, 2006.
    The NFL and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency send samples to the lab to be tested for banned substances such as anabolic steroids. The lab tested 1,604 samples in 2006.
    The UCLA Analytical Laboratory in Los Angeles tested 39,097 samples in 2006, far more than any of the other 33 accredited labs in the world. The Doping Control Laboratory in Montreal was second, having tested 14,706 samples.