Welcome to Volume 18 of Cell Death and Differentiation. In 2011, CDD finally comes of age, which may entitle at least its European Editors to legally consume alcohol. Not that the law appears to have been a hindrance to them or to their fellow Editors elsewhere in the world over the last 17 years.

Those whose faculties are not impaired by over-indulgence during the Christmas/New Year period will notice some changes to the journal, some minor, some major. We start Volume 18 with a new cover, and with some changes to the Editorial Board, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank the outgoing Board Members for their important contributions to the ongoing success of CDD.

The major change is the appointment of Tak W Mak as joint Deputy Editor. Tak was born in Southern China and raised in Hong Kong before studying Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Wisconsin. He received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Alberta in 1972 before moving to Toronto, where he has remained and is currently the Director of the Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research.

Tak brings an immensely broad range of research expertise to the journal. He was, of course, the first to clone the T-cell receptor, which was reported in several seminal papers published in Cell and Nature in 1984, and retains an active research programme in the biology of the immune system. He will also be known to many readers for his important contributions to the cell death field, in particular, by the generation of mice lacking Apaf-1, caspase-3, caspase-9, FADD and TRAF-2. Naturally, Tak's interests in cell death have diversified into an involvement with the pathogenesis of cancer, again partly by the generation of mice lacking genes that regulate apoptosis, such as SMAD4 and PTEN, as well as by targeted deletion of tumour suppressor genes such as Brca1/2 and TAp73. Currently, he is highly focussed on the mechanisms by which cancer cells shift their metabolism away from oxidative phosphorylation towards glycolysis and fatty acid oxidation, reflected in particular by his organising of two meetings in Capri devoted to cancer metabolism. It may be that the allure of further trips to Capri played no small part in his agreeing to become joint Deputy Editor.

The scope of Tak's intellect and experience will greatly help CDD in responding to the changes of emphasis affecting the cell death field, and ensure that the journal retains its freshness and originality despite its new maturity. Welcome on board, Tak.