BBB seminar: Stein-Ove Døskeland

Cell death and apoptosis – from backyard to forefront in biology
An introduction to the field

Stein-Ove Døskeland
Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen

It has been known for more than a century that cell death can be programmed (like in development), but only in the last decades has it been realized that also stressed or partially damaged cells can "commit suicide”. In fact, most anticancer agents do not kill cells, but act by inducing cell suicide.

Cell death is irreversible. Death commitment must therefore be extremely carefully controlled. Each cell has the option to die in different ways, which has importance for cell corpse disposal and inflammation in zones of cell death.

A short review will be given of cell death biology, with some examples from own research.