It was a bored bored day, not until I found out about this!
Remember Dr. Nisbet mentioning about Nobel prize winners from Perth? They are Barry Marshall and Robin Warren!
The interesting part was, one of them drank culture of H. pylori to prove that he was correct. My question is, who was the one?
--- The story of discovery ---
“On his birthday in 1979, Robin Warren, a pathologist with an interest in gastric ulcers, noticed spiral-shaped bacteria wherever he saw signs of inflammation in biopsies from patients with gastritis and ulcers. When Barry Marshall, who had recently completed his medical training, decided to find a research project, he talked to Robin Warren about his unusual observations.
Working together at the Royal Perth Hospital, over the following years their research showed that bacteria, not stress or lifestyle, caused the majority of gastric ulcers. It defied accepted wisdom that the stomach was too acidic to allow bacteria to survive, grow and cause disease. Their work was to rewrite the text books and go on to earn the greatest scientific prize of all, the Nobel Prize.
The discovery has lead to a greater understanding of the link between chronic infection, inflammation and cancer. Doctors world-wide routinely treat patients who suffer from painful ulcers with a simple course of antibiotics.
Since then, Warren has retired, but Marshall continues his research at the University of Western Australia on the bacteria that causes gastric ulcers.
They traveled to Stockholm in December 2005 to receive the award from the Nobel Committee. And it all started as an interesting observation by Warren on his birthday.”
(Quoted from Australian Academy of Science)
Up to this point, I haven’t got an answer yet.
Intuitively, would you predict a bacteria to be the cause of gastric ulcers? Of course not! So do the rest of the people at that time.
“To demonstrate that H. pylori caused gastritis and was not merely a bystander, Marshall drank a beaker of H. pylori. He became ill several days later with nausea and vomiting. An endoscopy ten days after inoculation revealed signs of gastritis and the presence of H. pylori. These results suggested that H. pylori was the causative agent of gastritis.
Marshall and Warren went on to show that antibiotics are effective in the treatment of many cases of gastritis. In 1987 the Sydney gastroenterologist Thomas Borody invented the first triple therapy for the treatment of duodenal ulcers. In 1994, the National Institute of Health (USA) published an opinion stating that most recurrent duodenal and gastric ulcers were caused by H. pylori and recommended that antibiotics be included in the treatment regimen.”
(Quoted from Wikipedia)
Barry Marshall and Robin Warren – This is how they write their stories. How about you?
