The idea that death can save lives is indeed a truism, but for complex organisms there is a significant protective mechanism in the background. Apoptosis is the name for the “suicide programme”, with which injured, old, mutated or dangerous cells can be deactivated in human tissue. But this suicide program can be misused by pathogens – or it can get out of control. You can read here how scientists are seeking to understand and make use of programmed cellular death in a cooperative research group within the Institute for Molecular and Clinical Immunology at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg and the HZI.