The recent controversy over steroid use among professional baseball players has raised questions about the ability to use performance-enhancing substances without getting caught.

Scientists have found that inserting certain genes into the body can improve one's athletic performance -- a gene-therapy technology that has been dubbed "gene doping."

Some worry that gene therapy could cause problems in sports, serving as a new type of steroid.

Mitch Price, assistant professor of biology, said gene doping would be more difficult to detect than steroids because the genes involved occur naturally in the body.

"Detecting it becomes much more difficult because it's there anyway," he said. "It's more than just peeing in a cup, that's for sure."

With gene doping, "you would notice increased muscle size and growth," said Cheryl Keller, a biology research associate.

Other kinds of gene therapy are currently being used to cure genetic conditions, such as dwarfism, said Robert Eckhardt, professor of developmental genetics and evolutionary morphology.

"Lots of different genes can be performance enhancers," he said.

However, if gene therapy were used to enhance performance in a healthy person, "gene doping" would be a more accurate name for the technology, Price said.

Scott Kretchmar, professor of exercise and sport science, said that if the risk of getting caught decreases, use will probably increase, and this hurts sport because competitions become unfair.

Tamba Hali (junior-journalism), defensive end for the Penn State football team, said he thinks that if enhancing athletic performance became undetectable, use would go up.

"Definitely," Hali said, if people "can get away with it, more people are going to use it."

Cornerback Alan Zemaitis (senior-communications) said that he did not think conventional steroids were a problem in college sports.

Safety Calvin Lowry (junior-crime, law and justice) agreed. "We rarely hear of it in college sports," Lowry said.

However, both Zemaitis and Lowry said conventional steroid use is a problem in professional sports.

"Since we've been exposed to [the Major League Baseball controversy], it seems like every sport is popping up with them," Lowry said.

Kretchmar said that one of the most appealing aspects of sport is the drama of people competing on a level playing field.

"At the starting line of a 100-meter race, it doesn't matter how much money you have in the bank, you've got to run fast," he said.

He said that when somebody cheats, it takes away the drama and the fun of the competition. But he said that people sometimes do it anyway, despite the potential health risks and the penalties involved with getting caught, because they give in to the pressure to succeed.

Pressure is on to "win, win, win," he said. "Sport should be more fun and informal."

Price said gene doping is basically a process of "harnessing the normal muscle development machinery, and turning it up in adults."

Price said that genes could be administered with a modified virus. He also said that genes could be coated with something and added to cells directly.

He said that gene doping would not be passed on to a person's children.

However, Kretchmar said that people who turn to gene doping would be altering more than just their athletic ability.

"It's not just about changing a muscle, it's about changing a person," he said. "We are our bodies. I'm my feet. You're your leg."

Gene doping would not come without potential health risks.

Eckhardt explained that tweaking some genes can yield unpredicted effects on other parts of the body.

"You could deregulate certain gene systems," he said, "but almost certainly at some cost."

Eckhardt said that a good natural example of this is Marfan syndrome.

People with Marfan syndrome often have symptoms that include a very tall stature, a displaced lens in the eye and cardiac problems. He said that because of the increased stature, people with Marfan syndrome have an advantage in basketball, but the advantage comes with the price of eye and heart problems.

Eckhardt added that the potential health risks might not stop some cheaters.

"Steroid use -- traditional doping -- isn't safe either," but people still do it, Price said.

While some are concerned about gene doping in the future, it is not currently prevalent because more research must be done, he said.

Keller said that gene therapy could be a potential cure for diseases like muscular dystrophy.

A lot of "muscle-wasting diseases might benefit from treatment," she said. "The more we know about the genome, the more possibilities there will be."