We aim to investigate the regulation of blood stem cells and leukemia by the HLF gene as a pathway toward discovering new cures for blood malignancies.

Blood stem cells (also known as hematopoietic stem cells, or HSCs) give rise to all the different types of blood cells in the body without becoming depleted, thanks to their capacity for self-renewal.

In acute myeloid leukemia (AML), one of the deadliest blood cancers, which affects 2,000 new patients per year in Spain, a subset of AML cells mimics the self-renewal capacity of HSCs. These are known as leukemic stem cells (LSCs). Understanding these LSCs is crucial because they are responsible for resistance and relapse of the disease after therapy.