Australia Developing Designer Athletes Genomics to help country remain sporting power Betterhumans Staff 8/27/2004 3:39 PM Advertisement
Australian scientists have begun using DNA samples from the country's top athletes to help develop future sporting stars, an Australian newspaper has reported.
Sydney's The Daily Telegraph reports that the scientists aim to develop technology that allows children to be screened for sports in which they can excel, as well as for whether their genes are likely to confer success.
The government-backed Australian Institute of Sport and the Royal Prince Alfred Department of Molecular and Clinical Genetics have reported identifying two genes related to power and stamina.
These genetic markers can be used to find future sporting stars and to match athletes to events best suited to their genetic constitution.
"One of the reasons we are identifying the important genes is to get better training programs or maybe redirect athletes to particular sports they may be more likely to be successful in," Ron Trent, head of genetic testing at Royal Prince Alfred, said in an interview.
Australia is known as a sporting power, despite having just 20 million people. The country currently stands fourth in medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics, behind the much larger US, China and Russia.
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www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2004-08-27-2This is disturbing. I do approve of genetic engineering, but I do not approve of GOVERMENT ENVOLVMENT in it.