Humans have about a million billion cells. Every second of every day, over a million of them kill themselves. In fact, committing suicide is the ultimate fate of 99% of our cells. If cells fail to die when they should, they accumulate and can turn into cancers. On the other hand, if cells activate their self-destruct mechanisms when they shouldn't, it can cause damage of important tissues such as the heart and brain.

Professor David Vaux is an ARC Federation Fellow from the La Trobe University Department of Biochemistry.

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