Adrian Candelas completed his thesis under the supervision of Stéphane Brunet and Manuel Thery in the CytoMorphoLab laboratory at Hôpital Saint Louis Paris/IPGG Institut Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Paris/CEA Grenoble. His thesis work was based on the development and use of an original experimental system of “minimalist artificial niches”. This work allowed him to demonstrate that human haematopoietic stem cells and progenitors have the capacity to interact with different stromal cells in niches mediated by the CXCR4-CXCL12 signaling pathway which induces cytoskeleton remodeling and eventually cell polarization. These heterotypic interactions promote asymmetric cell division and the production of daughter cells that differ in their differentiation potential. These new findings shed light on how haematopoietic stem cell divisions are spatially regulated within micro-niches, and how they contribute to the plasticity of early haematopoiesis.​