By Ben Wyatt
London (CNN) - We're just days away from the start of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and anti-doping officials want all competitors follow the rules of the games.
So, they'll be testing athletes to make sure they aren't using performance-enhancing drugs.
The Olympic Games may be synonymous with achievement, but drug taking athletes like Marion Jones, Ben Johnson, and Irina Korzhanenko have shown that not all stay within the rules.
That's why London 2012 organizers have been driving home the message that dope cheating in July will be harder than ever before.
That's because for the first time, a private company called GlaxoSmithKline is helping out with the Olympic project. I've come to East London, to their laboratories, to find out more about the science behind the screening for dope.
During the period of the games, a $30 million facility will see 150 scientists manning the laboratory 24 hours a day.
Samples of blood and urine from the athletes will be delivered direct from the Olympic park to a lab technician who will scan the individual's details into the lab's records.
The samples are then given to someone who cracks open the airtight seals. This allows another person to separate the liquids into individual vials ready for testing.
The list of IOC banned substances is a long one, and the man responsible for finding them is Professor David Cowan, a specialist drafted in from Kings College London, and the director of the whole operation.
[Reporter]: "I know that there are kind of key performance-enhancing drugs that would probably be at the top of your list to find. How many substances in all would these machines detect in blood or urine?"
"Well, across the range of instruments that you see in the lab today, we reckon we can pick up even things you haven't even thought of. We can take a sort of what is known as a data-mining approach, where we can look for things we hadn't even have thought of. So, I think, we'll soon be away from the days where designer drugs beat the analyst, and I'm hoping this will be the Games that actually prove that," said Cowan.
[Reporter]: "And I suppose it's only fitting for the Olympic Games that the testing is going to be speedy and efficient?"
"Well, under the world anti-doping agency code, the normal turnaround is 10 working days. During the Olympics, it's one working day. Twenty-four hours is when we turn around the results," said Cowan.
Fast testing, and quicker results is the promise of the lab, and GlaxoSmithKline are also quick to defend their role of support.
"We're working very hard at GSK to ensure there is absolute clear water between what we're doing in providing the building, the technology, the machinery, and the actual testing that goes on during the Games, which is solely the remit of Professor Cowan and the scientists from King's College. So they'll be no GSK scientists in this lab during Games time," said Kerry O'Callaghan.
[Reporter]: "What do you think GlaxoSmithKline will bring to this project?"
"We expect about half the athletes who are taking part to be tested, but, really, importantly, every single athlete that steps on the Olympic podium will have been tested, and proven clean and healthy by this laboratory," said Callaghan.
Like all good scientists, it seems the London 2012 team has certainly done their homework.
It remains to be seen if any athlete dares putting their expertise to the test.
The Olympic Games get under way Friday with the Opening Ceremony.
More than 10,000 athletes from 205 countries are expected to attend.
CNN