The invention features methods for identifying compounds that inhibit cell death, and methods for identifying compounds that promote cell death, by blocking or accelerating, respectively, the translocation of the catalytic domain of toxins or transcription factors through the endosomal membrane into the cytosol of a cell. Also featured are methods for inhibiting cell death that include the administration of polypeptides that include a toxin consensus sequence recognized by one or more components of the cytosolic translocation factor complex.