EBV has been implicated in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.27 Our knowledge regarding the etiology of these diseases would therefore be advanced by a method that can define antigen specificity within the associated CD8+ T-cell clonal expansions.28 We initially focused on clones SB16 and SB12, which are both specific for the immunodominant HLA A*0201-restricted BMFL1280–288 epitope GLCTLVAML (Table 1). This evidence concerns the gene CD8A and autoimmune disease.