Programmed Cell Death and Apoptosis in Lymphocyte Development and Function

¹ Professor of Microbiology and Immunology.

It is clear that there is programmed cell death, and it is becoming clearer that there is also a cell death program, that is, a stereotyped series of biochemical events that lead to cell death. These events are under genetic regulation, and it should be possible in the future to identify the genes involved and characterize the function of their protein products. It will also be possible to determine the capacity of individual cells to activate the process: some will be poised to die, and other will resist apoptosis. Understanding the pathway will allow us eventually to activate apoptosis in any cell; the application to cancer therapy is obvious. Furthermore, there may be conditions - Huntington's, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's syndromes come to mind - in which programmed cell death is abnormally activated. If we understand the mechanism, we may well be able to prevent it. Knowing the means by which a cell makes the decision to live or to die will provide us with unprecedented tools to understand and regulate biologic processes.