MOST human acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) cells have limited proliferative capacity, suggesting that the leukaemic clone may be maintained. by a rare population of stem cells(1-5). This putative leukaemic stem cell has not been characterized because the available in vitro assays can only detect progenitors with limited proliferative and replating potential(4-7). We have now identified an AML-initiating cell by transplantation into severe combined immune-deficient (SCID) mice. These cells homed to the bone marrow and proliferated extensively in response to in vivo cytokine treatment, resulting in a pattern of dissemination and leukaemic cell morphology similar to that seen in the original patients. Limiting dilution analysis showed that the frequency of these leukaemia-initiating cells in the peripheral blood of AML patients was one engraftment unit in 250,000 cells. We fractionated AML cells on the basis of cell-surface-marker expression and found that the leukaemia-initiating cells that could engraft SCID mice to produce large numbers of colony-forming progenitors were CD34(+) CD38(-); however, the CD34(+) CD38(+) and CD34(-) fractions contained no cells with these properties. This in vivo model replicates many aspects of human AML and defines a new leukaemia-initiating cell which is less mature than colony-forming cells.