Dick and colleagues showed that, in human acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), a rare malignant cell with the ability to repopulate the entire original disease over several transplantations, implying self-renewal and capacity to differentiate, was only found within the immature CD34+CD38−, and not the CD34+CD38+, sub-population (Lapidot et al, 1994; Bonnet and Dick, 1997). This evidence concerns the gene CD38 and acute myeloid leukemia.