Barry Marshall is an Australian Physician. Barry met Robin Warren (pathologist) when he was working in Royal Perth hospital. They both shared a common interest - gastritis. Gastritis and Ulcer were major issues back in 1980s and the most common misconception was that ulcers were caused due to stress only.
When they (Barry and Robin) started to study about this, they found presence of a bacterium (Helicobacter Pylori) in the gut of patients infected with ulcer. They autopsied patients died of ulcer and cultured that bacterium in laboratory.
When Barry and Robin tried to prove this to the world, nobody believed them. Scientists and Physicians were obsessed with their old theory and were not ready to come out of it. Since this bacterium - H.Pylori affects only primates, they were not able to prove it using rats. Testing using humans was not permitted by the Government.
Out of desperation, Barry drank the bacterium himself and developed ulcer. To prove their theory and to help people, he made himself a lab rat! He created proof using the only human subject that the Government will not stop him from using.
Due to Barry's discovery, it became easy to treat ulcer just using antibiotics. Meanwhile he also found out that this bacterium is also the reason for peptic cancer in some cases. Barry and Robin uncovered the mysterious organism that was reason for many stomach related issues. This earned Nobel Prize (2005 - Physiology) for both of them.
To know about another guy who risked his life for science, click here
