Studies carried out in our laboratory showed that the incubation of CML cells in low oxygen time-dependently suppresses the BCR/Abl oncoprotein (but not the BCR/abl oncogene) and that a cell subset endowed with stem cell potential is capable of persisting in low oxygen independently of BCR/Abl signaling [11,12]. The gene discussed is ABL1; the disease is chronic myelogenous leukemia, BCR-ABL1 positive.