Warren, (John) Robin (1937– )

Australian pathologist, who with Australian physician and microbiologist Barry J Marshall shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2005 for the discovery of the Helicobacter pylori bacterium and the determination of its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease. Their work demonstrated that the majority of stomach ulcers could be cured by treatment with antibiotics.

Until the 1980s, stomach ulcers were considered to be an incurable condition that developed in a sufferer due to stress and lifestyle factors. The established scientific opinion was that symptoms could be controlled using anti-ulcer drugs to regulate acid in the stomach, but that the condition could not be totally treated. Warren discovered that unusual curved bacteria were found in half of all biopsies taken from the lower stomach of patients suffering from stomach ulcers. He collaborated with Marshall to study the bacterium, which was eventually cultured under lab conditions and became classified as the species Helicobacter pylori. Their study showed that Helicobacter pylori was almost always found in patients suffering from duodenal ulcers, gastric ulcers, and gastric inflammation. They proposed that the bacterium was responsible for all these conditions and that a course of simple antibiotics would cure the majority of patients.

Their research was considered highly controversial as it not only contradicted the established scientific view of the cause of ulcer formation, but also would effectively eliminate the highly lucrative global market in anti-ulcer drugs if proven to be correct. The discovery was proven conclusively in 1985, when Warren infected himself with the bacteria that caused the development of gastric inflammation, and cured himself by administering a course of antibiotics. This discovery allowed the development of proven treatments addressing the cause of gastric and peptic ulcer disease and not just the symptoms of the condition.

Warren was born in Adelaide, South Australia. He was awarded his MB BS medical degree by the University of Adelaide, South Australia, in 1961. In 1964 he became a registrar in clinical pathology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, and a registrar in pathology at this institution in 1966, a position he held until 1968. He held the position of pathologist at the Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, from 1968 until 1999.