Beginning from centuries of anecdotal descriptions of cell death such as those on the
development of the midwife toad in 1842 by Carl Vogt to modern-day investigations of cell
death as a biological discipline it has become accepted that cell death in multicellular
organisms is a normal part of life. This book provides a comprehensive view of cell death from
its mechanisms of initiation and execution to its implication in human disease and therapy.
Physiological cell death plays critical roles in almost all aspects of biology and the book
details its roles in lymphocyte homeostasis neuronal function metabolism and the DNA damage
response. When physiological cell death goes awry diseases can arise and cancer is presented
as a central paradigm for the consequences of derangements in the interplay between cell
survival and cell death. At the same time the potential promise of targeted therapies aimed at
interdicting cell death machineries are also discussed extensively. The molecular mechanisms
that underlie apoptotic cell death are illustrated from the perspectives of both the intrinsic
mitochondrial apoptotic pathway and the extrinsic death receptor pathway. Key players in these
pathways such as the Bcl2 family proteins cytochrome c Apaf-1 caspases death receptor
adapter proteins and inhibitor of apoptosis proteins are presented from both functional and
structural angles. Until only a few years ago programmed cell death has been considered
essentially synonymous with apoptosis. However we now know that programmed cell death can also
take other forms such as necrosis or necroptosis and to this end the mechanisms that underlie
programmed necrosis in development and host defense are illustrated. The past twenty plus years
have seen an incredible growth of research in cell death with one breakthrough after another
and the legacy still goes on with constant new surprises and findings. Long live cell death!
