My former colleague Barrie Marmion, who has died aged 94, was a clinical microbiologist who made a number of important discoveries about diseases including Q fever (an animal infection transferable to humans), hepatitis B and rheumatoid arthritis. His professional life stretched for more than 70 years, from the era of smallpox and diphtheria to that of gene therapy and molecular diagnostics.
Barrie was born in Alverstoke, Hampshire, the son of Joseph, a pharmacist, and Melita. After education at a Catholic boarding school, Barrie rejected his father's staunch Roman Catholicism. He went on to study medicine at University College hospital in London. Because of the second world war, the students largely taught themselves; this experience may have helped shape his determined self-reliance in later years.
He joined the public health laboratory service (PHLS) in London, worked at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, in 1951-52, then joined Professor Michael Stoker's pathology group at Cambridge University. Barrie later moved to head the new PHLS virus laboratory in Leeds. Here he made the key discovery (concurrently with Leonard Hayflick and Robert Chanock in the US) that Eaton's atypical pneumonia agent is a mycoplasma, not a virus, so opening the way for its treatment by antibiotics. He also published the first description of the rare and potentially fatal condition.
In 1963, he was appointed foundation professor of microbiology at the new Monash University Medical School in Melbourne. This was a stimulating and challenging role.
Barry then accepted an invitation to take the chair of bacteriology at Edinburgh University. There he was involved in the successful control of a severe outbreak of hepatitis B, which ultimately led to the cloning (with Ken Murray, Christopher Burrell and Patricia Mackay) of the hepatitis B virus. He also (with John Mackay and Mary Norval) extensively tested theories about rheumatoid arthritis, ruling out definitively the possibility that the condition was caused by virus or mycoplasma infections – research that led to better-informed treatment.
In 1979, he became senior director of medical virology at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, Adelaide, where he built a leading virus research and diagnostic group. After his retirement, Barrie continued to live in Adelaide, conducting research that led to the introduction of a successful vaccine against Q fever and the establishment in Melbourne of the BP Marmion Q fever vaccine manufacturing facility.
Barrie combined a dignified, authoritative presence with extraordinary warmth, thoughtfulness, and support for and recognition of others. He was a valued mentor to younger scientists. He read widely and was an entertaining host, debating with charm and insight, and intensely loyal to his co-workers.
He is survived by his Australian wife, Diana, whom he first met in Portugal in 1947, their daughter, Jane, and two granddaughters.
