This volume contains papers that were presented and discussed at The 1996 Interna tional Symposium on Programmed Cell Death, which was held in the Shanghai Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on September 8-12, 1996. Apoptosis has attracted great attention in the past several years. This is reflected in part by the exponential increase in the number of papers published on the subject. While several major scientific conferences have been held in recent years, this meeting repre sents the first major international scientific meeting on programmed cell death held in Asia, where...