Necroptosis can be triggered by different death and immune receptors in response to pathogen infection or in the context of sterile inflammation [2–4], and relies on activation of receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase (RIPK)3 [5–7] and its substrate mixed lineage kinase domain-like protein (MLKL) [8, 9], which mediates membrane rupture. The gene discussed is MLKL; the disease is infection.