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UWA academic receives international honour

UWA academic Professor Barry Marshall and colleague Dr Robin Warren, a Royal Perth Hospital pathologist, have received one of the most coveted prizes in the scientific community: the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Professor Barry Marshall, in a bold move, drank a solution containing the bacteria Helicobacter Pylori to prove his and colleague Doctor Robin Warren's theory that stomach ulcers leading to gastric cancer were caused by the bacteria and not stress or poor diet.

After being extremely ill with gastritis for two weeks Professor Marshall was treated with a course of antibiotics and recovered quickly. Now as a result of such a stunningly simple discovery Professor Marshall and Doctor Warren have been awarded with the Nobel Prize.

It was more than twenty years ago that these colleagues set out to challenge the long held medical conventions about ulcers. They faced a lot of hostility in the medical society for their claims and, for years after Professor Marshall infected and cured himself, stomach ulcers continued to be treated in the same manner. It was almost 10 years later that the US National Institutes of Health finally endorsed antibiotics as standard treatment for stomach ulcers. Australia followed two years later.

Asked what the $1.5 million Nobel Prize would mean to them, Professor Marshall replied: "Respect".

The Nobel Prizes, introduced by the will of Alfred Nobel, are awarded to people (and also to organizations in the case of the Nobel Peace Prize) who have done outstanding research, invented groundbreaking techniques or equipment, or made outstanding contributions to society.