For the first time ever, a Nobel-prize winner has accepted an appointment at Penn State.
Barry J. Marshall, co-recipient of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine, will join the university this spring as the Francis R. and Helen M. Pentz professor of science to further his research in bacterial infections.
"I'm looking forward to it," Marshall said of his appointment at Penn State.
Marshall will be working with the departments of microbiology and immunology, veterinary and biomedical sciences, and biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State, though his principal appointment will remain as a senior research fellow at the University of Western Australia.
Marshall said he will be doing "mainly research" here -- about two-thirds of his Penn State work, he estimated.
"But I expect I'll give a few lectures," he added.
Penn State spokeswoman Jill Shockey said that because Marshall is a part-time faculty member, his schedule is flexible. He will be spending a minimum of two weeks per year at Penn State, but the full details of the schedule are not known yet, she said.
Marshall and co-recipient J. Robin Warren received the prize "for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease," according to www.nobelprize.org.
Marshall said his current research is on vaccines and gene therapy.
By studying genetics, he hopes to be able to develop a long-lasting vaccine, he said.
"H. Pylori bacteria can live in your stomach for months, so if you have a vaccine that lasts for only a day, that's not much use," he said.
He visited Penn State's Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics (CIDD) about a year ago, he said.
"I didn't understand Penn State was interested in this [type of research]," Marshall said. "I must have given an interesting lecture."
Penn State President Graham Spanier enlisted the support of several CIDD researchers along with Eberly College of Science Dean Daniel Larson to get Marshall interested in working at Penn State.
"We see this appointment as an opportunity for Dr. Marshall to bring his outstanding research experience and his special qualities of outreach and public understanding of science together with Penn State's strengths in genomics, embodied in the Institute of Genomics, and our strengths in infectious diseases in the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics," Spanier wrote in a press release.
