MARSHALL AND WARREN: THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS IN MEDICINE IN 2005

Two scientists, Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, from the Australian City of Perth won the Nobel prize in Medicine in 2005. They independently published two letters in one issue of the Lancet in 1983 and noticed the presence of a spiral bacterium in the epithelium of stomach.1 In his letter, Marshall declared “if these bacteria are truly associated with antral gastritis, as described by Warren, they have a part to play in other poorly-understood gastritis-associated diseases, i.e., peptic ulcer and gastric cancer.” What was going on with this hypothesis? The young assistant, Marshall, wanted to conduct a research in 1981 at Perth University. His boss addressed him to either collect macroscopic data by endoscopy or ask the pathologist Dr. Warren, who was looking for a clinical collaborator interested in the follow-up of patients found to have bacteria in their gastric biopsies. The first option was not suitable for him and thus, Dr. Marshall contacted Dr. Warren. After their meeting, he became enthusiastic to work on this bacterium and their collaboration on gastric diseases started from this point onward.