CD34 and acute myeloid leukemia: The BAALC gene was originally identified in blasts from Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) patients with trisomy 8 (7), and is normally expressed in the cytoplasm of muscle and brain cells (7) and in CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells, but not in peripheral blood or unselected bone marrow cells from healthy donors (8).