Helicobacter: The Ease and Difficulty of a New Discovery (Nobel Lecture)

When J. Robin Warren noticed small curved and spiral bacilli closely applied to the epithelial surface of a patient with severe chronic gastritis, it was a “fact” that bacteria could not live in the acidic environment of the stomach. In collaboration with Barry J. Marshall, Warren went on to confirm that Helicobacter pylori is a pathogenic bacterium associated with ulcers and chronic gastritis. In 2005, they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.