Australian testing breakthrough tackles drug cheats.

The secretive world of sporting drug cheats could be set for a shake-up.

A specialist team at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) has developed a way of detecting illicit drugs that researchers say is more sensitive than present methods. The innovation lies in better separation of various compounds, using both liquid and gas elements of a sample. Any banned substances appear as colourful blotches, rather than the usual spikes on a graph.

"What we can do is analyse things such as testosterone, metabolites and other compounds that are used in the steroid area, in particular anabolic agents," RMIT's Professor Philip Marriott told Australia Network. "These are the ones that give muscle growth."

The technique allows researchers to find traces of banned substances that are far smaller than what is presently detectable. The new method also allows old samples to be tested for previously undetectable drugs, meaning cheats could be caught years after their test.

"It means you cannot hide if you've already delivered a sample to the drug testing people, and you know the compound is there," Professor Marriott said. "Ideally one could never hide from the analytical testing."

The research has attracted the attention of the World Anti-Doping Authority, which has given the university team $162,000 for three years of study to screen a broad range of drugs.

It is a trial for now, but the technology could have implications for Olympic athletes, elite cyclists and other sports prone to drug cheating.

The researchers are working with a doping control body in Thailand and the Australian Sports Drug Testing Laboratory. They hope to compare their method with conventional testing during the 2012 London Olympics.