The Partnership for Clean Competition (PCC) was pleased to return to Major League Baseball Headquarters in New York City to host its seventh anti-doping conference on April 1st and 2nd. The theme of the event was The Future of Sport Drug Testing: Innovation in Detection and Deterrence, and presentations covered important topics and advances in science, technology, policy, and intelligence. With a hybrid in-person/virtual model, the conference attracted in-person and virtual attendees from across the United States and around the world. The program featured 30 speakers, moderators, and panelists who work in academic institutions, industry, anti-doping laboratories, national anti-doping organizations, professional sports leagues, government, and non-governmental organizations.
Day one of the conference began with an excellent presentation from our keynote speaker Dr. Rahul Gupta, former Director of the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Dr. Gupta served in this role from November 5, 2021 – January 20, 2025. In his presentation, he discussed his work enhancing drug control policies to address national challenges, particularly surrounding opioid abuse and drug overdose. Dr. Gupta shared valuable insights about the dangers of the politicization of anti-doping, as well as emerging trends in the field and the value of research.
The keynote lecture was followed by an outstanding scientific session titled Detection and Deterrence Challenges: Novel Research Updates (PCC-funded), which featured updates on PCC-funded research projects from our speakers Dr. Andy Hoofnagle (University of Washington), Dr. Sophia Krombholz (Cologne Laboratory), Dr. Bradley Johnson (Texas Tech University), Dr. Olivier Salamin (Lausanne Laboratory), and Dr. Marissa Baranauskas (University of Colorado, Colorado Springs). Their presentations emphasized the important anti-doping research questions that are being addressed with support from the PCC and the exceptional progress that has been made on these projects to date.
Our second session of the meeting focused on The Future Laboratory, with presentations from Ellie Ahrens (University of California, Los Angeles Laboratory), Dr. Vinod Nair (Sports Medicine and Research Testing Laboratory), and Dr. Mario Thevis (Cologne Laboratory) that explored changes in antidoping testing and analysis, including automation, organ-on-a-chip systems, and tools to detect gene doping.
Next, attendees enjoyed discussions that explored Technology Advancements to Support Athletes and Drug Testing. Dr. Laura Lewis (U.S. Anti-Doping Agency), Dr. Jenna Goodrum (Sports Medicine and Research Testing Laboratory), Dr. Michael Skinnider (Princeton University), and Dr. Trine Halvorsen (University of Oslo) shared their expertise on areas, spanning the doping control process, capillary blood collection, using AI to discover ‘designer’ doping agents, and detection of peptide doping agents with dried blood spot sampling.
On day two of the conference, Allison Wagner (U.S. Anti-Doping Agency) shared her perspectives as a former Olympic athlete on key considerations surrounding the burden of athlete responsibilities in the anti-doping process, the need to protect athletes’ privacy, and the field’s commitment to advancing technology to improve the athlete experience.
The fourth session of the conference, titled The Trifecta: Science, Intel and Investigations, highlighted the multidisciplinary nature of anti-doping and the advantages of combining various strategies and sources of evidence to enhance anti-doping investigations and protect clean sport. The speakers were Moira Weinberg (Major League Baseball), Nelson Tejada (Major League Baseball), Kieran Elliott (Athletics Integrity Unit), Dr. John Hertig (Hertig Healthcare Advising and Purdue University), and Dan Burke (U.S. Anti-Doping Agency).
To conclude the conference, we were excited to welcome entrepreneur and three-time Olympian Shannon Rowbury to share her perspectives as a clean athlete whose career was affected by doping competitors. Shannon spoke candidly with Moderator Michael Teevan (Major League Baseball) about her career, her dedication to sport, and her experiences surrounding the 1500m race at the London 2012 Olympic Games, where she initially finished in sixth place and is now in bronze medal position — 12 years later — after multiple competitors in the race have been disqualified. Her story emphasized the impacts of the work that our conference attendees do every day in anti-doping and why this work is so important for elite athletes who dedicate their lives to pursuing excellence in sport.
Thank you to all of our Founding Members and Contributors, sponsors, speakers, moderators, attendees, and, of course, our wonderful colleagues at Major League Baseball for allowing us to hold the conference at their headquarters. The PCC 2025 Conference was a tremendous success, and we look forward to seeing everyone again in 2027! Please stay tuned for more information to come on our next conference.
