Research Scientist. Yvonne Barr, an Irish-born virologist, received world-wide notoriety for her participation in the discovery of the Epstein-Barr virus, which is called human herpesvirus 4 and was the first discovered human tumor virus. The Epstein-Barr virus is the commonly known cause of infectious mononucleosis in mainly adolescence patients. The virus has been linked to serious adult diseases such as various types of cancers, including Hodgkin lymphoma and an African childhood tumor, Burkitt lymphoma; and diseases effecting the nervous system including Parkinson Disease, dementia, and multiple sclerosis. In the 21st century, researchers are attempting to find an Epstein–Barr virus vaccine, which would eradicate thousands of cases of cancers annually. In 1963, she joined Sir Michael Anthony Epstein's research group at Bland Sutton Institute at Middlesex Hospital. The group had received a $45,000 research grant from the National Institute of Health. To isolate the virus, Epstein had recruited her, as a PhD student, for cell culture preparation, and Dr. Bertrand Achong was recruited for his electron microscopy skills. Using Burkitt's lymphoma cells, which were shipped from Uganda to Epstein's lab, experiments began. In 1964 virus particles were identified in the cultured cells while preparing for other experiments. Achong's powerful electron microscope revealed the tiny virus particles. The results were published as an article, "Virus Particles in Cultured Lymphoblasts from Burkitt's Lymphoma" in the professional periodical " The Lancet" in 1964 with Epstein, Achong, and Barr being authors. After leaving the research group, Barr graduated from the University of London in 1966 with a PhD. Upon moving to Melbourne, Australia, she married Stuart Balding and had a daughter and a son. She earned a degree in education and taught biology in secondary schools for 20 years. In March of 2014 at the EBV 50th Anniversary Conference at Keble College in Oxford, a short video on the discovery of the virus, which an 82-year-old Barr had made in Australia, was shared with the conference audience. Three years before her death, she had been diagnosed with renal failure with dialysis