Nobel Prize Given to Man Who Discovered H. Pylori

In the 1980s, scientists began to notice the presence of curved bacteria, which later became known as H. pylori, in tissue samples taken from patients with ulcers of the stomach and upper small intestine. Believing that no bacteria could survive the harsh stomach environment, most scientists thought these mysterious bacteria were either due to contamination of tissue samples or just another harmless species of bacteria like many found in the gut. However, Australian researchers Barry J. Marshall, M.D., and J. Robin Warren, M.D., were convinced that the bacteria were actually the cause of ulcers. Marshall, frustrated with the lack of a good animal model of infection, infected himself with the curved bacteria. He became ill, developed inflammation of the stomach, and was able to culture the bacteria from his own ulcers, thereby proving the microbe to be the cause of stomach ulcers. For their discovery of H. pylori and its role in gastric ulcer formation, Marshall and Warren were awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine.