ICE AND APOPTOSIS

This issue features an article by Lynch, Shivers and colleagues (pages 227-238) which presents a novel, cell-permeable cysteine protease inh ibitor, boc-aspartyl(OMe)-fluorome-thylketone (boc-Asp-CH2F, abbreviat ed BAF). This inhibitor is an important new tool available to the rese arch community and may represent a harbinger of a new class of chemica ls useful in the treatment of human disease, In order to understand th e value of BAF, we need to take a step back and examine the current co ncepts on the role of apoptosis in human disease.