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Special Issue on Cell Death: Murder, mystery (and a little bit of mayhem) in Manhattan

2016; Wiley; Volume: 283; Issue: 14 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/febs.13782

1742-4658

Jerry E. Chipuk, Séamus J. Martin,

Mitochondrial Function and Pathology

This Special Issue on Cell Death comprises a series of 12 reviews that span a broad spectrum of topics within highly active research areas in the cell death field. We hope that you will find these pieces to be of interest; we certainly found them to be fresh and engaging and we are grateful to their authors for taking the time to write for The FEBS Journal. Welcome to this Special Issue on Cell Death, which contains a set of timely reviews written by many leading scientists in the field who gathered in a very chilly Manhattan in February 2015 at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. The reviews span a broad spectrum of topics, all within highly active research areas in the Cell Death field; from BCL-2 family structure-function relationships and their role in the regulation of mitochondrial permeabilization [1, 2], molecular control of TNF-induced necroptosis [3, 4], ER stress-induced cytotoxicity [5], the role of proteases in plant and animal programmed cell death [6], targeting BCL-2 family proteins in cancer [7], metabolic control of cell death [8], cell death in the intestine [9, 10], targeting regulatory T-cells to eliminate tumors [11], and IL-1 family cytokines as triggers of necrosis-associated inflammation [12]. To top off the issue, Doug Green has contributed a wonderful overview on the divergent modes of cell death, in the form of a three-act play [13]. We hope that you will find some, or all, of these pieces to be of interest; we certainly found them to be fresh and engaging and we are very grateful to their authors for taking the time to write for The FEBS Journal. This Special Issue also serves to celebrate the scientific contributions of one of the major figures of the Cell Death field, Doug Green (Fig. 1), and indeed the idea for this special issue emerged from the Mount Sinai meeting (hosted by Jerry Chipuk), which was held to celebrate Doug's significant influence in this area. There is an oft-quoted line from Jim Watson's Double Helix that he had ‘never seen Francis Crick in a modest mood’. For those of us who have worked, collaborated, or even just attended a meeting with Doug Green, the equivalent line would be that we have never seen him in anything other than exuberant mood. As anyone who knows him will attest, Doug's passion for science is infectious and is frequently deployed for the benefit of the field and indeed for science in general. It is not an overstatement to say that his impact on the Cell Death field, as well as many scientists within it, have been truly enormous. Doug has made many contributions to our mechanistic understanding of how cell death is regulated, from his initial work on activation-induced cell death of T cells [14, 15], to revealing the mysteries of apoptosis-associated mitochondrial permeabilization [16, 17], and the role of BCL-2 family proteins in regulating the latter event [18, 19]; to his more recent work on genetic dissection of necroptosis using murine models [20, 21] as well as identifying a novel mode of phagocytosis [22], to mention just a few of the many highlights. Aside from his notable scientific achievements, Doug is also an incredible mentor, advisor, and friend to many in the field; and he has produced a steady procession of freshly minted group leaders at a rate greatly exceeding the norm. As anyone who has worked with Doug knows, the passion he brings to science is inspirational and helps to draw out the best from those around him, something that clearly benefits their formation as curious and hypothesis-driven scientists. Indeed, one testament to the high regard in which he is held is that numerous former postdoctoral fellows, collaborators, and friends flew from all corners of the globe to gather at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on 5th Avenue to surprise Doug and to help celebrate his 60th birthday (Fig. 2). It was one of the few times we have ever had the pleasure to see Doug Green rendered speechless, which of course did not last for long. The meeting that followed (‘Green at 60’) was a blast, as Doug would say, and we all learned many new things about where the field is going, and reconnected with friends old and new. Anyone who has ever been to a conference with Doug Green on the program will know the huge role that he plays in posing thought-provoking questions to the presenters, in giving wonderful talks himself, and just as importantly, in ensuring that the nights in the bar, or around a guitar, are equally memorable and filled with laughter. His contributions are always positive, insightful, and add vigor and energy to the room. Sadly, his trademark Hawaiian shirts seem to have been relegated to the back of his closet (but who could every forget some of those weird and wonderful creations?) and his ponytail has long since been sheared; but the tie-dyed tee shirts still make regular appearances and the guitar is a frequent flying companion. So, thank you Doug, for enriching our lives and our work, for being an inspiration and a champion of the field; we celebrate your achievements and passion for life and look forward to meeting again for Green at 100, but no doubt sooner. There were many other topics within the Cell Death field covered at the meeting in Manhattan, but space constraints coupled with the need to compile this issue within a reasonable timeframe meant that several important areas in the field are not covered within this small selection of reviews. However, it was clear from the meeting that the field is undergoing somewhat of a renaissance at the moment; just when we thought we had many of the key questions in the field solved, and some were beginning to put away the annexin V assays, along comes necroptosis to remind us that we do not have it all worked out. The resurgence of interest in necrosis has also reminded us that one reason that regulated cell death exists in the first place is to avoid a highly undesirable consequence of necrosis, inflammation, which is a key driver of several major diseases. Well, we hope that you will enjoy reading this Special Issue of The FEBS Journal and, if you are not a regular reader of the journal, we would encourage you to browse through some of our extensive range of free content, which can be found here (http://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291742-4658/category/Free%20Review%20Content/). All of our review, commentary, viewpoint, and other featured content are made freely available from the day of publication. And of course, if you would like to submit a paper or a review proposal to the journal, we would love to hear from you (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/febsj). This Special Issue on Cell Death comprises a series of 12 reviews that span a broad spectrum of topics within highly active research areas in the cell death field. We hope that you will find these pieces to be of interest; we certainly found them to be fresh and engaging and we are grateful to their authors for taking the time to write for The FEBS Journal.