Racing Medication and Testing Consortium to Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Racing Medication & Testing Consortium (RMTC) has announced that it will fund the research proposal, “Detection of Bisphosphonates Using Metabolomics,” submitted by Dr. Bethany Keen at the University of Pennsylvania's Equine Testing and Research Laboratory. Dr. Keen's research to date has been conducted in Australia and focused on equine anti-doping, analytical chemistry, and statistics.

Metabolomics is an emerging field in doping control and represents a novel testing approach that identifies cellular effects unique to a class of drugs rather than identifying the specific molecule responsible for those effects.

“The RMTC is proud to support the professional development of young scientists who are the future of our drug testing and research programs,” said Alex Waldrop, RMTC Board Chair. “It is particularly rewarding to be able to fund Dr. Keen as she will be under the supervision and tutelage of Dr. Mary Robinson whose own post-doctoral training program was funded by the RMTC over 10 years ago.”

“The recruitment and retention of motivated, highly trained personnel and support of competitive research programs are critical to anti-doping, medication control, and racing safety programs,” said Dr. Mary Scollay, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. “The racing industry has a responsibility to solicit qualified individuals, support their advanced training, provide incentives for relevant research programs, and foster productivity in research laboratories.”