Barry Marshall, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Medicine, was a courtesy faculty member at Kansas University Medical Center from 1996 to 2000, recruited by fellow Australian Richard McCallum, director of the center’s division of gastroenterology and hepatology.

“We do have a nice link” to the Nobel laureate, McCallum said.

Marshall and J. Robin Warren, both Australians, received the Nobel last week for their discovery of the bacterium that causes stomach inflammation and ulcers.

McCallum first met Marshall in the mid-1980s at Yale University where McCallum was a faculty member. At the time, Marshall was looking for a university that would give him a platform for his research – which proposed that bacteria, and not acid, was the main culprit behind peptic ulcers.

McCallum said he saw promise in the researcher with a radical reputation. McCallum had his own doubts that gastric acid caused ulcers and was open to Marshall’s theory.

When McCallum moved to Virginia to take the role of the chief of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, he recruited Marshall.

• Nobelprize.org
• Nobelprize.com: More on Marshall
• Marshall’s Web site

“I was very open to change in this area,” McCallum said.

McCallum described Marshall as evangelistic and excited about his research.

“That single-minded focus was necessary,” McCallum said.

McCallum recalled Marshall’s days in Charlottesville.

During his research, Marshall famously drank the bacteria, which inflamed his stomach and caused him to vomit. That event contributed to his reputation as a mad scientist. When Marshall appeared on the Virginia campus, he carried a tabloid magazine detailing the bacteria-eating incident beneath the headline “Mad Australian Doctor Eats Bug.”

McCallum said Virginia scientists wondered what kind of researcher they were getting.

But at Virginia, Marshall found the setting to prove his theory.

McCallum and others nominated Marshall for the Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award – one of the most prestigious honors in medical science. Marshall received the award in 1995.

And when McCallum arrived at KU Medical Center in 1996, he brought Marshall with him.

As clinical associate professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology, Marshall made several visits to Kansas City each year to give lectures.

McCallum said he hoped to attend the award ceremonies in Stockholm in December.

Marshall’s story, he said, shows the potential when one perseveres.

He “was open to a new concept, embraced a theory and stuck with it in the face of criticism,” McCallum said. “We need to be open to new explanations in areas that are not totally explained.”