Since the late 1970s, biologists have known that blood develops in a specific body location. But they’ve wondered why different creatures house their blood stem cells in different places. In humans and other mammals, they’re in the bone. In fish, they’re in the kidney. Why?

Strange as it seems, the two stem cell “niches” share something in common, say researchers led by Leonard Zon, MD, of Boston Children’s Stem Cell Program, the Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (HSCRB) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Both protect blood stem cells from sunlight’s harmful ultraviolet rays. The findings, published today in Nature, may contain lessons for improving blood stem cell transplants for cancer, blood disorders and other conditions. …