Ulcer researchers awarded '05 Nobel Prize

October 3, 2005

Two Australian researchers, J. Robin Warren and Barry Marshall, are the 2005 winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in discovering the role of ulcer bacteria in producing digestive ulcers. . They were announced Monday morning in Stockholm, Sweden.

Warren and Marshall will equally share a US$1.3 million cash prize award for discovering "the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease." Dr Marshall cultivated the previously unknown bacterial species H. pylori from a study of biopsies from 100 ulcer patients, firmly establishing that gastric disorders are infectious diseases. Before their discovery, peptic ulcer was attributed to stress and lifestyle. 

The Nobel Committee has awarded the Nobel Prize in the category 'Physiology or Medicine' since 1901, when Emil Adolf von Behring won for developing a treatment for diphtheria.

The announcement begins a week of Nobel announcements. The Physics and Chemistry awards will be announced Tuesday and Wednesday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday.