On May 6, 2022, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced that it had launched an early-stage clinical trial to evaluate an investigational preventative vaccine for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). EBV is the primary cause of infectious mononucleosis and is associated with certain cancers and autoimmune diseases.

The Phase 1 study, conducted at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, was one of only two studies to test an investigational EBV vaccine in more than a decade.