Pituitary
Testing for Growth Hormone (GH) is difficult because the GH used in doping is indistinguishable by normal methods, from the GH made by the body itself. Although the use of GH is banned, there is anecdotal evidence that GH doping is widespread, so a reliable test is required to deter its abuse. Our work is focused on identifying factors regulating the different forms of GH, called isoforms, and on proteins that respond to the growth hormone signal. We are investigating the biological interactions between testosterone and GH in recreational athletes. We are also using microarray gene profiling to identify novel markers of GH in peripheral blood cells. The aim is to develop a gene fingerprint test based on gene expression profiling of blood.
Staff
 Research
FellowDr Vita Birzniece |
 Research OfficerDr Jing Ting Zhao |
 Research NurseJennifer Hansen |
