Don Catlin, Who Ran an Elite Antidoping Laboratory, Dies at 85

A medical doctor and an expert in pharmacology, he ran drug testing for sports leagues and the Olympics, unlocking the chemical codes for previously undetectable designer steroids.

Dr. Don Catlin in the Olympic testing lab in Los Angeles in 2000. He was the director of the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory from 1982 to 2007.Credit...Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times, via Associated Press Dr. Don Catlin, who built the first U.S. antidoping laboratory, and whose research unlocked the chemistry behind numerous previously undetectable performance-enhancing drugs and snared athletes who cheated by using steroids and other banned substances, died on Jan. 16 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 85.

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