J. Robin Warren

Royal Perth Hospital / University of Western Australia

John Robin Warren is an Australian pathologist and Nobel laureate who, together with Barry Marshall, discovered the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer. Warren first observed unusual curved bacteria in biopsy specimens from patients with active chronic gastritis in 1979, and persistently reported the association despite skepticism from the medical community that bacteria could survive in the acidic gastric environment. His meticulous histological observations and his collaboration with Marshall to culture the organism led to one of the most important re-evaluations in medicine: that ulcers are an infectious disease, not a lifestyle disease. Warren and Marshall shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Warren's careful pathological work represented the critical first step in recognizing H. pylori as a pathogen, and his insistence on the significance of the finding despite institutional resistance exemplifies the importance of empirical observation in medical science.