This week’s episode comes with a warning: don’t attempt this at home. While self-experimentation has led to many a scientific breakthrough, we’re definitely not advocating it. But it happened to work out for the best for Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, even earning them a Nobel prize. That’s right folks, today we’re talking about none other than Helicobacter pylori, the curvy little bacterium identified only a few decades ago to be a causative agent of peptic ulcer disease, a major risk factor in the development of gastric cancer, and a fierce warrior who can survive the harshest of environments: your stomach.
| History | Biology |
| Linz, Bodo, et al. “An African origin for the intimate association between humans and Helicobacter pylori.” Nature 445.7130 (2007): 915. | Calam, John, and J. H. Baron. “Pathophysiology of duodenal and gastric ulcer and gastric cancer.” Bmj 323.7319 (2001): 980-982. |
| Graham, David Y. “History of Helicobacter pylori, duodenal ulcer, gastric ulcer and gastric cancer.” World Journal of Gastroenterology: WJG 20.18 (2014): 5191. | Herrera, V., and J. Parsonnet. “Helicobacter pylori and gastric adenocarcinoma.” Clinical Microbiology and Infection 15.11 (2009): 971-976. |
| Van Der Weyden, Martin B., Ruth M. Armstrong, and Ann T. Gregory. “The 2005 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.” Medical Journal of Australia 183.11/12 (2005): 612. | Sitarz, Robert, et al. “Gastric cancer: epidemiology, prevention, classification, and treatment.” Cancer management and research 10 (2018): 239. |
| Cornwall, Claudia. Catching cancer: the quest for its viral and bacterial causes. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. | Zamani, M., et al. “Systematic review with meta‐analysis: the worldwide prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection.” Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics 47.7 (2018): 868-876. |
| https://www.science.org.au/learning/general-audience/history/interviews-australian-scientists/professor-barry-marshall | Hooi, James KY, et al. “Global prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection: systematic review and meta-analysis.” Gastroenterology 153.2 (2017): 420-429. |
| Kidd, Mark, and Irvin M. Modlin. “A Century of Helicobacter pylori.” Digestion 59.1 (1998): 1-15. | Zeng, Ming, et al. “Efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity of an oral recombinant Helicobacter pylori vaccine in children in China: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial.” The Lancet 386.10002 (2015): 1457-1464. |
| Falush, Daniel, et al. “Traces of human migrations in Helicobacter pylori populations.” science 299.5612 (2003): 1582-1585. | Sutton, Philip. “At last, vaccine-induced protection against Helicobacter pylori.” The Lancet 386.10002 (2015): 1424-1425. |
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