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Nature Cell Biology 10, 1387–1388 (1 December 2008) | doi:10.1038/ncb1208-1387

Staying alive: apoptosome feedback inhibition

Hermann Steller

Caspases, the key executioners of the apoptotic cell-death program are expressed as weakly active pro-enzymes in most of our cells. Despite this potentially lethal cargo, activation of the cell-death program is mainly restricted to unwanted and potentially dangerous cells.