lab confessions

In the seventies, many people in Australia were suffering from gastric pains and could not be cured with conventional medicine. Their conditions were worsening due to the development of intestinal ulcers, causing internal bleeding, leading doctors to believe that nothing much could be done and so they treated patients with generic treatment.

Dr. Marshall, when studying the condition, stated that harmful microorganisms cause the ulcers, but he did not have any evidence to support his claim. Meanwhile, Dr. Robin Warren discovered a new bacterium (spiral-shaped) existing in an ulcer. With this discovery, they had a chance/hope to find solutions and started working on this bacterium. However, they were not able to grow the bacterium in the laboratory. All their attempts were in vain. Over a long Easter weekend in 1982, with Alexander Fleming's good fortune, they ended their bad luck when they found the growth of bacterium (by fluke).

Now they were able to cultivate the bacteria, but there were more obstacles. They grew the bacterium, but this time they failed to address Koch's Postulates. For the ones who do not know anything about Koch’s Postulates, these are like the immigration checkpoints when crossing international borders. With this failure, the evidence was of no use. It was essential to fulfill all the conditions, so they tried to study the effect of bacteria on mice and piglets to strengthen their argument/statement. They again were unsuccessful in infecting these animals.

Dr. Marshall became increasingly skeptical of prevalent scientific dogmas, which he lamented as "the illusion of knowledge," which restricted the progress of potentially ground­ breaking research. He couldn’t endure more rejection and made the drastic move in 1984 when, he drank a bacterial cocktail, which led to severe stomach inflammation for about two weeks. Seeing his condition/symptoms, his wife was terrified and worried that it would pass onto their kids. But the beginning of good times started with his recovery leading to the publication of his findings in the world's leading medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine. His certain faith in his research and his experience is represented in a comic called Ulcer Tales. Their work started a chain reaction in the study of Helicobacter in subsequent years. He, along with Warren, earned a number of awards over the years with the most prestigious being the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2005). His ultimate dedication to research of H. pylori showed a great level of persistence and uprightness, which we should seek to accomplish through our work despite outside circumstances of prejudice and delusion.