Metabolic Health

Metabolism Controls How and When Cells Die — and Could Be Targeted in Disease

Scientists have long thought of regulated cell death as a genetic program, but a new review in Cell Metabolism argues that metabolism is actually the decisive factor. The authors propose that a cell's energy status, redox balance, lipid makeup, and metal availability determine whether it lives or dies — and which death pathway it follows. They map cell death modes along a spectrum from energy-hungry apoptosis to chemistry-driven ferroptosis. Organelles and their communication networks add spatial precision to this process. Crucially, the review argues that reprogramming metabolism can redirect cells toward or away from death, opening the door to therapeutic strategies that target metabolic dependencies in cancer, neurodegeneration, and other diseases.