Nature Medicine, July 2008 This article in the current issue of Nature Medicine quotes UTMB's Peter Mason, professor of pathology. There are currently no vaccines approved by the FDA against West Nile, but researchers recognize the threat of the virus. "Protecting the elderly is one important goal of vaccine development," said Mason. The article also mentions Mason's rodent study published in the May issue of Vaccine hinting that a DNA vaccine might help protect against the West Nile virus. The DNA vaccine developed by Mason uses a genetically modified virus that can only survive long enough to infect a single cell, and thus cannot cause disease.