All of these molecules can potentially play a role in mediating cancer initiation, progression and/or chemoresistance; Bcl-xL promotes cell survival, LIN28 regulates self-renewal of stem cells and is able to activate the PI3K-mTOR pathway, c-myc, H-Ras and HMGA2 all drive cell proliferation. The gene discussed is BCL2L1; the disease is cancer.