Different cell deaths in nature

Why there are so many forms of cell death in nature is really an excellent question. The short answer is that we still do not know; however, a plausible explanation is that these various forms of cell death likely play a different role in homeostasis and host defence by 1) sensing different triggers or disruptions of internal environment, 2) being engaged in different tissues or cell types, and 3) providing different outcomes, such as "silent" elimination of old or damaged cells vs regeneration vs proinflammatory response, etc. For example, apoptosis is typically perceived as non-inflammatory form of cell death which is responsible for daily homeostatic cell turnover or is engaged in developmental context, while pyroptosis and necroptosis are typically activated in "danger" context, such as injury or infection, and are known to trigger massive proinflammatory response. Other forms of cell death, such as ferroptosis, have less clear physiological significance.

In my Webinar, I will address your other points about how we can control these forms of cell death with optogenetics and how we can use these tools to gain useful insights into both cell death itself and its contribution in tissue homeostasis and disease.