Bacteria-killing viruses redirect vaccine immunity to destroy cancer
newscientist.comPhages could enable us to hijack vaccine immunity to kill cancer cellsPhages, viruses that infect bacteria, could be genetically manipulated to destroy cancerous cells using the immunity we have acquired from vaccines✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Part of the MichaelFilter
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Unlock the full reading · $5.50 →Researchers engineered bacteria-infecting phages to bind tumor-specific integrins and deliver malaria antigen instructions, redirecting vaccine-built immunity to attack cancer cells. In mice previously vaccinated against malaria, this approach eradicated tumors in 44% of cases with no recurrence at one year. The principle could extend to any pre-existing vaccine immunity, including flu or covid, and human trials are being discussed with UK regulators.
Teaching:
• Frame immune memory as a resource the body already holds, much like proprioceptive memory students bring to the mat; practice redirects existing patterns rather than installing new ones
• Use this as a class theme on specificity: the phage works because it targets a marker present on tumors but absent on healthy tissue, mirroring how precise cueing lands only where it is needed
• Talk to students about how repetition builds latent capacity (vaccination, daily practice) that becomes useful only when something arrives to direct it
Writing seeds:
• Essay on practice as pre-loaded immunity: what Ashtanga deposits in the body that you only draw on years later
• Short post for the Shala Daily on the difference between adding stimulus and redirecting existing capacity
• Ashtanga.tech piece on targeting markers: why functional cueing succeeds by binding to what is already specific in a body
• Michaeljoelhall.com essay on memory, recognition, and the body's archive as a system that waits for the right signal
Idea map:
• Systems literacy: layered mechanisms (vaccine + delivery vehicle + target) parallel how practice stacks attention, breath, and method
• Embodiment as accumulated readiness rather than acute effort connects to his framing of daily practice
• Attention as the targeting mechanism that makes general capacity actionable
• Practice as method: a protocol that becomes powerful when combined with a directing signal
Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2531700-bacteria-killing-viruses-redirect-vaccine-immunity-to-destroy-cancer/
Teaching:
• Frame immune memory as a resource the body already holds, much like proprioceptive memory students bring to the mat; practice redirects existing patterns rather than installing new ones
• Use this as a class theme on specificity: the phage works because it targets a marker present on tumors but absent on healthy tissue, mirroring how precise cueing lands only where it is needed
• Talk to students about how repetition builds latent capacity (vaccination, daily practice) that becomes useful only when something arrives to direct it
Writing seeds:
• Essay on practice as pre-loaded immunity: what Ashtanga deposits in the body that you only draw on years later
• Short post for the Shala Daily on the difference between adding stimulus and redirecting existing capacity
• Ashtanga.tech piece on targeting markers: why functional cueing succeeds by binding to what is already specific in a body
• Michaeljoelhall.com essay on memory, recognition, and the body's archive as a system that waits for the right signal
Idea map:
• Systems literacy: layered mechanisms (vaccine + delivery vehicle + target) parallel how practice stacks attention, breath, and method
• Embodiment as accumulated readiness rather than acute effort connects to his framing of daily practice
• Attention as the targeting mechanism that makes general capacity actionable
• Practice as method: a protocol that becomes powerful when combined with a directing signal
Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2531700-bacteria-killing-viruses-redirect-vaccine-immunity-to-destroy-cancer/
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