The 30(th) anniversary of Campylobacter, Helicobacter, and Related Organisms workshops—what have we learned in three decades?

As we commemorate the 30(th) anniversary of the Campylobacter, Helicobacter, and Related Organisms (CHRO) workshops with this special Frontiers edition, we look back upon three decades of research and provide some highlights from the 16(th) International CHRO meeting. Although Theodor Escherich himself provided drawings of campylobacters back in the 1880s, Campylobacter jejuni was not identified until the 1950s. Helicobacter pylori was first described to be the causative agent of stomach ulcers at a CHRO meeting by Barry Marshall and Robin Warren—who later received the Nobel Prize for their findings that bacteria could cause diseases previously believed to be caused by human factors. Now, several genome sequences for campylobacters, helicobacters, and related organisms are available and we have moved into an era examining the intersection between host microbial ecology and pathogen infection. Both pioneers and new investigators in the CHRO research field continue to obtain “unexpected results” demonstrating that campylobacters and helicobacters do not follow classic paradigms of other well-characterized gastrointestinal pathogens and we are learning that there is a plethora of interesting related organisms beyond C. jejuni and H. pylori. This review summarizes recent discoveries in CHRO research and the exciting directions ahead.