Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Lighting Up the Pathways to Caspase Activation Using Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation
Published on: March 5, 2018
Caspase-2: killer, savior and safeguard--emerging versatile roles for an ill-defined caspase
G Krumschnabel1, C Manzl, A Villunger
1Division of Developmental Immunology, Biocenter, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck A-6020, Austria. Gerhard.krumschnabel@i-med.ac.at
Abstract:
Despite the early discovery of caspase-2, its physiological function has long remained an enigma. A number of recent publications now suggest not just one, but multiple functions, including roles in apoptosis, DNA repair and tumor suppression. How can one enzyme have so many talents? Considering the diversity of interaction partners and the specific mode of pro-apoptotic action proposed in these studies, caspase-2 might in fact represent a primordial protease serving numerous pathways, established before the advent of a more elaborate functionally diversified caspases system.
Related Concept Videos
Caspases
The Extrinsic Apoptotic Pathway
The Intrinsic Apoptotic Pathway
Apoptosis
CRISPR and crRNAs
The CRISPR-Cas system stores a copy of foreign DNA in the host genome and uses it to identify the foreign DNA upon reinfection. CRISPR-Cas has three different...
CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing

