Australian Science

Nobel Prize

Australians Barry Marshall and Robin Warren have won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The researchers from Western Australia were recognised for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori.

In 1982, Professor Marshall, as a young doctor working at Royal Perth Hospital, along with Dr Warren, a pathologist, discovered that infection of the stomach with a previously unidentified spiral bacteria caused gastritis-associated dyspepsia and ulcers, and increased the risk of gastric cancer. The discovery was based on clinical and laboratory observations as well as an experiment in which Professor Marshall infected himself, treated the infection and recovered.

The bacterium was a new species of Helicobacter pylori, and the researchers developed techniques for its diagnosis including biopsy, blood and breath tests, and its treatment with antibiotic therapy. The work revolutionised the treatment of gastro-duodenal ulcers by enabling an antibiotic cure, and has led to a significant reduction in the prevalence of gastric cancer.

Professor Marshall continues research related to Helicobacter pylori and runs a molecular biology laboratory at The University of Western Australia within the Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences. He met Robin Warren, a pathologist interested in gastritis, during internal medicine fellowship training at Royal Perth Hospital in 1981. Dr Warren is now retired.

In 2002 Professor Marshall was awarded the Keio Medical Science Prize in recognition of his work in isolating and cultivating Helicobacter pylori.

This brings the number of Australian Nobel Prize laureates to 10.

Australian Nobel prize winners are:

• 1915
  Sir William Lawrence Bragg and his father, Sir William Henry Bragg
  Physics - for their work analysing crystals using X-rays
• 1945
  Sir Howard Walter Florey
  Medicine - for work on the development of penicillin
• 1960
  Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet
  Medicine - for work on immunology
• 1963
  Sir John Carew Eccles
  Medicine - for work on how nerves and the brain work
• 1973
  Patrick White
  Literature
• 1975
  Sir John Warcup Cornforth
  Chemistry - for the structure of living matter
• 1996
  Peter Doherty
  Medicine - for work on immunology
• 2005
  Barry Marshall and Robin Warren
  Medicine