Barry Marshall

Medicine

What failed

The finding was that a bacterium causes stomach ulcers, and the profession would not have it — everybody knew the stomach was sterile. His hospital contract was not renewed. The national gastroenterology society rejected his abstract, ranking it in the bottom ten per cent of everything submitted that year, and would not even give him a poster. His attempts to infect piglets failed. He came to believe he would never be funded to run the trial that would settle it.

What happened next

In July 1984 he drank a broth of the cultured bacteria, without ethics approval and without telling his wife, and gave himself acute gastritis. The paper appeared in 1985. It took until 1994 for an official conference to conclude that ulcer patients should get antibiotics. He shared the Nobel Prize in 2005.

The point

Twenty-three years from the 1982 discovery to the prize, most of it spent being told he was wrong by people with more standing. He also says plainly that the lone-hero version is exaggerated and that others backed him early — which is worth keeping, because the myth is more flattering and less true.

The sequence

4 documented failures, shown with the successes in between. Every entry carries its own source — the wins are part of the record, and leaving them out is how these stories get distorted.

1979-82
Clinicians will not accept the bacteria are even there. Everybody knows the stomach is sterile.
failureJ. Robin Warren, Nobel Lecture 2005 (The Nobel Prize)
1982
He presents the work to a mixed reception and learns his hospital contract will not be renewed.
failureBarry J. Marshall — Biographical (The Nobel Prize)
1983
The national society rejects his abstract, ranking it in the bottom tenth of submissions.
failureBarry Marshall (Wikipedia)
1984
The animal experiments fail, and he concludes he may never be funded to run the trial that would settle it.
failureBarry J. Marshall, Nobel Lecture 2005 (The Nobel Prize)
1984
He drinks the bacteria himself, with no ethics approval and without telling his wife.
disputedWhen Scientists Experiment on Themselves (Scientific American)
1985
The self-experiment is published, with the gastritis documented.
success23 years of the discovery of Helicobacter pylori (PMC)
1994
Ten years on, an official conference concludes that ulcer patients should be given antibiotics.
successGut Feeling (Lasker Foundation)
2005
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
successPress release: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2005 (The Nobel Prize)

Sources

Barry J. Marshall — Biographical (The Nobel Prize)
I found that my contract at Royal Perth would not be renewed the following year.
Press release: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2005 (The Nobel Prize)
This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, who with tenacity and a prepared mind challenged prevailing dogmas.
Barry J. Marshall — Biographical (The Nobel Prize)
Needless to say, reports that I was alone in the promotion of HP as a pathogen are somewhat exaggerated.