DOCTORS interested in Helicobacter pylori will have the opportunity to hear from the co-discoverer of the bacteria himself, Nobel laureate prize winner Prof Dr Barry Marshall, at a dinner talk this Friday in Kuala Lumpur.

Prof Marshall, a Universiti Malaya Nobel Fellow, won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2005, along with Prof Dr Robin Warren, for their discovery of H. pylori, and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.

His dinner talk “The Helicobacter pylori Story – The Road to the Nobel Prize”, will kickstart The 2nd Asian Pacific Topic Conference: Asian Pacific Helicobacter pylori Meeting 2012 this weekend at the Shangri-la Hotel Kuala Lumpur.

This first-ever regional single topic conference to be held in Malaysia will also feature 30 other global and regional H. pylori specialists, who will cover various topics ranging from epidemiology to research and treatment of diseases associated with the bacteria.

Dinner talk: Prof Barry Marshall will be addressing the conference on his research discovery.

Aside from gastritis and peptic ulcer disease, H. pylori is also the cause of gastric cancer.

“H. pylori is the culprit for gastric cancer, which is very high in certain parts of Asia Pacific,” says conference scientific chairman Dr Tan Huck Joo.

According to him, other big names in the world of gastroenterology attending the conference are Prof Dr Peter Malfertheiner from the Otto-von Guericke Universität, Magdeburg, Germany, Japanese Society of Gastroenterology president Prof Dr Kentaro Sugano, and Chinese University of Hong Kong vice-chancellor Prof Dr Joseph Sung.

Prof Malfertheiner is the lead author of the third Maastricht Consensus, the latest guideline used in Europe for the diagnosis and treatment of H. pylori infection, while Prof Sugano is a renowned expert on gastric cancer and Prof Sung is “probably the most quoted researcher in the whole world for everything related to gastroenterology”.

In addition to the talks, two workshops will be held during the conference.

One is an endoscopy workshop on early detection of gastric cancer, which will feature teaching sessions by National Cancer Centre Hospital, Tokyo, Endoscopy Division chief Dr Takuji Gotoda, a well-known pioneer of various endoscopy techniques.

And the other is a workshop on the microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics of H.pylori infection, focusing on the potential impact of the latest technological developments on research in this area.

However, Dr Tan says that the conference is not just for gastroenterology specialists and consultants.

“It will be useful for GPs (general practitioners), surgeons, physicians and MOs (medical officers) as well, because H. pylori is quite common, and most doctors will probably have come across it. The conference will update them on the latest cutting-edge developments in the field.”

He adds: “This conference is to capture on what we’ve learnt over the past 30 years, to see and go through what we know about this bacteria, what we do not know, and what we must do for the future.”

Organised by the Malaysian Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, in association with the Asia Pacific Association of Gastroenterology and the Japan Society of Gastroenterology, the conference theme is Translating Science into Clinical Medicine: H. pylori Infection in Asia Pacific in the New Millennium.

Doctors interested in registering for either the conference or Prof Marshall’s talk can contact the Academy of Medicine at 03-40234700/40254700/40254700 or email secretariat@apagehp2012.org. For more information, log on to www.apagehp2012.org.

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