French researchers have reported an advance toward curing the rare, inherited brain-wasting illness,  adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) using gene therapy.  ALD, made famous by the movie Lorenzo’s Oil, slowly strips away layers of fatty acids protecting nerve fibers in the brain.  Researchers used an experimental treatment that incorporated a deactivated version of the HIV virus.  The deactivated HIV virus was used to carry genes to the patients’ stem cells.  For more information, see Wired Science.