Although initial comparisons of the intrinsic suicide program in genetically tractable organisms such as the nematode C. elegans failed to disclose obvious relationships to genes associated with human neurodegenerative diseases – e.g., presenilin-1 and the β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) do not bear an obvious relationship to any of the major C. elegans cell death genes (ced-3, ced-4, or ced-9) – more recent studies have begun to disclose a fundamental relationship between developmental and degenerative processes [1,4-8]. This evidence concerns the gene APP and neurodegenerative disease.