Barry Marshall at GYSS 2022 – How Curiosity Driven Research Resulted in the Nobel Prize in Medicine
Prof Barry Marshall recounted that when he and Dr Robin Warren first postulated that stomach ulcers were caused by bacteria in the stomach, at the time that theory ran against the general consensus that the disease was caused by stress. He personally drank the bacteria (helicobacter pylori) to fulfill Koch's postulates that it caused gastritis, although he also opined that conducting such an experiment on one’s self is “not very scientific”. However, by doing so, he discovered the causal mechanism, and as a result, there are now improved treatments for stomach ulcers and a simpler way to test the presence of the bacteria, which does away with an endoscopy.
Prof Barry Marshall recounted that when he and Dr Robin Warren first postulated that stomach ulcers were caused by bacteria in the stomach, at the time that theory ran against the general consensus that the disease was caused by stress. He personally drank the bacteria (helicobacter pylori) to fulfill Koch's postulates that it caused gastritis, although he also opined that conducting such an experiment on one’s self is “not very scientific”. However, by doing so, he discovered the causal mechanism, and as a result, there are now improved treatments for stomach ulcers and a simpler way to test the presence of the bacteria, which does away with an endoscopy.