John Dick

John Dick discovered the leukemia stem cell, demonstrating that only a rare CD34+/CD38- subpopulation of acute myeloid leukemia cells could initiate disease in immunodeficient NOD-SCID mice, establishing the cancer stem cell model that has since been extended to most solid tumors. His subsequent work revealed that the LSC hierarchy undergoes clonal evolution, with different stem cell clones competing and evolving over the course of disease progression and therapy. He has characterized the bone marrow niche interactions that protect leukemia stem cells from chemotherapy. His foundational work defines the field of cancer stem cell biology.