Yvonne Barr facts for kids

Yvonne Balding (born Barr; 11 March 1932 – 13 February 2016) was an important scientist from Ireland. She was a virologist, which means she studied viruses. In 1964, she helped discover a very important virus called the Epstein–Barr virus.

Yvonne Barr's Early Life and Studies

Yvonne Barr was born in Ireland in 1932. She loved learning about animals and graduated with high honors in zoology from Trinity College in Dublin. After college, Yvonne worked in different research labs in the UK and Canada. These labs studied both animal and human health.

Discovering the Epstein-Barr Virus

In 1963, Yvonne Barr joined a research team led by a scientist named Michael Anthony Epstein. He was a pathologist and virologist, also studying viruses. They worked at the Bland Sutton Institute of Pathology at Middlesex Hospital Medical School in London.

Yvonne Barr was a key part of the team that discovered the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) in 1964. This happened while she was working on her PhD, which is a high-level university degree. Before they fully understood the virus, Epstein, Barr, and another scientist named Bert Achong shared their early findings in a science journal called The Lancet. Yvonne was very important because she prepared the samples used in their experiments. This careful preparation helped them find and study the virus. The Epstein-Barr virus is also known as human herpesvirus 4.

Yvonne Barr completed her PhD from the University of London in 1966.

Her Life in Australia

Later in her life, Yvonne Barr moved to Melbourne, Australia. There, she married Stuart Balding and they had two children together. Yvonne Barr passed away in Melbourne in 2016 when she was 83 years old. Her discovery of the Epstein-Barr virus was a major step forward in understanding human health.

See also

In Spanish: Yvonne Barr para niños