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Quick tips for interpreting cell death experiments

Nature Cell Biology volume 25, pages 1720–1723 (2023)Cite this article

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Cell death is an important biological process whose experimental detection and measurement can be difficult, especially when examining many conditions in parallel. The interpretation of cell death data is complicated by the diversity of measurement techniques and lack of standardized methods in the field. Here, we offer tips to help interpret cell death experiments.

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Fig. 1: Overview of issues associated with the measurement of cell death.

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Acknowledgements

We thank members of the Dixon laboratory and L. Magtanong for comments on the manuscript. This work was also supported by an award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (2R01GM12292306) to S.J.D.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Scott J. Dixon

  2. Department of Systems Biology, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

    Michael J. Lee

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  1. Scott J. Dixon
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Correspondence to Scott J. Dixon or Michael J. Lee.

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Competing interests

S.J.D. is a co-founder of Prothegen Inc., a member of the scientific advisory board for Hillstream Biopharma and holds patents related to ferroptosis. M.J.L. declares no competing interests.

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Dixon, S.J., Lee, M.J. Quick tips for interpreting cell death experiments. Nat Cell Biol 25, 1720–1723 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-023-01288-5

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