tisdale: --before the gig.nt, i pitched to francis that it was really time that we do something definitive for sickle cell disease. >> lapook: in the laboratory, dr. tisdale and his collaborators created a gene with the correct spelling. then, to get that gene into the patient, they used something with a frightening reputation: h.i.v., the virus that causes aids. it turns out, h.i.v. is especially good at transferring d.n.a. into cells. >> dr. tisdale: so this shows the process. >> lapook: here's how it works. the corrected gene, seen here in yellow, is inserted into the h.i.v. virus. then, bone marrow stem cells are taken from a patient with sickle cell anemia. in the laboratory, those cells are combined with the virus carrying that new d.n.a. >> dr. tisdale: this virus will then find its way to one of those cells and drop off a copy or two of the correctly-spelled gene. and then, these cells will go back to the patient. >> lapook: if the process works, the stem cells with the correct d.n.a. will start produci