Nobel Laureate Barry Marshall talked about his way to Noble Prize yesterday during a conference at Australia Pavilion.
Marshall proved the bacteria Helicobacter pylori to be the cause of most Peptic Ulcer and received Nobel Prize in 2005.
He and his colleague Robin Warren made the discovery that inflammation in the stomach (gastritis) as well as ulceration of the stomach or duodenum (peptic ulcer disease) is the result of an infection of the stomach caused by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, he said.
Among doubts and criticism, Marshall drank a Petri dish of H. pylori, developed gastritis, and the bacteria were recovered from his stomach lining, thereby satisfying three out of the four Koch's postulates.
The postulates, proposed by Robert Koch in 1890, are criteria designed to establish a causal relationship between a causative microbe and a disease.
Marshall's discovery reversed the traditional concept that peptic ulcer was caused by stress and too much acid.
When asked whether he felt it was too late to receive the prize after 23 years, Marshall said that Koch isolated the Tuberculosis bacillus in 1882 and was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1905.
Marshall's 23 years cycle was just 100 years later than Koch's 23-year-cycle so his Nobel prize was just perfect, Marshall added.
The conference focused on exchanges of China and Australia's biotech achievements.
Australia is famous for many biotech contributions to the world such as penicillin, implants of artificial cochlea, synthesis of omega-3 fatty acids as well as researching and developing world's first vaccine of cervical cancer.
Cooperation of biotech between the two countries has seen surges and now two sides are trying to forge innovative and highly efficient cooperative ties, commissioner general for Australia Lyndall Sachs said.
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