In 1979 Marshall became a Registrar in Medicine at the RoyalPerth Hospital. At the hospital he metRobin Warren, apathologist who was interested ingastritis. They were both training in internal medicine at Royal Perth Hospital in 1981. Together they looked at spiral bacteria in gastritis. In 1982 they grew a culture ofH. pylori. They worked on their idea that there was a bacterial cause ofpeptic ulcer andstomachcancer.[2] Their idea was laughed at by scientists and doctors who did not believe that any bacteria could live in the acidic stomach. Marshall said that "Everyone was against me, but I knew I was right".[3] Other doctors said they wouldn't believe it until theH. pylori idea could be proved.[4]
Marshall and Warren tried to give the bacteria topiglets in 1984, but it did not work. Marshall drank some of the bacteria and soon developed gastritis withachlorhydria. He had stomach discomfort,nausea,vomiting and bad smelling breath. On the 14th day of the infection,biopsies of Marshall's stomach did not show any bacteria. His body may have got rid of the bacteria without help. His wife made him takeantibiotics immediately so there was no way of checking the negative result again. He did not developantibodies to H.pylori. This means that naturalimmunity can sometimes get rid of H.pylori infection. His illness and recovery, showed the link betweenH. pylori and gastritis, but not for peptic ulcer. This experiment was published in 1985 in theMedical Journal of Australia[5] and is among the most cited articles from the journal.[6]
After this work atFremantle Hospital, Marshall did research at Royal Perth Hospital (1985-86) and at theUniversity of Virginia, USA (1986-1996), before going back to Australia. He held a Burnet Fellowship at the University of Western Australia from 1998-2003.[7] He is still looking atH. pylori and runs the H.pylori Research Laboratory at UWA.[8]
↑Marshall, Barry (26 August 2002)."Helicobacter pylori Research Laboratory". University of Western Australia. Retrieved2007-01-28. His home page and various links can also be found there.
Marshall BJ, Warren JR.Unidentified curved bacillus on gastric epithelium in active chronic gastritis. Lancet 1983;1(8336):1273-1275.PMID 6134060.
Marshall BJ, Warren JR.Unidentified curved bacilli in the stomach patients with gastritis and peptic ulceration. Lancet 1984;1(8390):1311-1315.PMID 6145023.
