Professor Barry Marshall is a Western Australian medical researcher and Nobel Laureate who currently acts as director of biotech start-up Ondek, and of a research centre at the University of Western Australia.
In 1982 Prof Marshall discovered the Helicobacter pylori bacterium with Dr Robin Warren. The two later proved that the bacterium was the cause of peptic ulcers and most stomach cancer, work for which they received the 2005 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology. In 2007 Prof Marshall was named Western Australian of the year and made a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AC).
Since 2005 his biotechnology start-up company Ondek has been focused on developing a vaccine and drug delivery system called the “Helicobacter pylori Platform Technology” utilizing the unique characteristics of genetically modified H. pylori. The work is funded by Western Australian and international investors, and supplemented by an AusIndustry commercial-ready grant from the Federal government.
The Marshall Centre for Infectious Diseases Research and Training, of which he is a co-director, has developed enhanced methods for non-invasive studies on H. pylori, including a breath test for the infection.
