Thomas Borody

Life

Thomas Julius Borody was born in Poland and migrated to Australia with his family in 1960. He earned degrees in Science and Medicine from the University of New South Wales in the mid-1970s and then worked for nine years at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney before undertaking postgraduate research at Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research and at the Mayo Clinic. He gained his Doctorate in Medicine in 1984.

Triple therapy for H. pylori infection

As a gastroenterologist, Borody is most famous for his work on the development of the triple therapy for infection with Helicobacter pylori bacteria. The triple therapy, which was invented around 1987, is a combination of bismuth, metronidazole and tetracycline. At the time, Borody was working with Dr. Barry Marshal and Dr. Robin Warren (who later received a Nobel prize for their research into Helicobacter pylori), and is considered to be the first physician to successfully formulate the triple therapy that would later become the gold standard for treating peptic ulcer disease caused by Helicobacter pylori infection.

Subsequent career

In the 1990s and early 2000s Borody discovered a number of other drug combinations which have been demonstrated to be important in treating gastrointestinal disorders such as Crohn's disease. Dr. Borody has also made significant contributions to innovative treatment for Pseudomembranous colitis and Ulcerative colitis called fecal bacteriotherapy, which involves repopulating the gut with beneficial bacteria using fecal material from healthy individuals. This has proved to be particularly beneficial for treating Clostridium difficile colitis.

Current work

Borody currently operates a Sydney-based clinic focused on gastrointestinal disorders called the Centre for Digestive Diseases.