Memory is widely discussed in the biomedical literature, primarily in neuroscience and immunology. Nonetheless, most scientific and philosophical literature approaches memory through a cognitive lens, leaving a gap at the sub-cognitive and biological levels (specifically, the material foundations of memory that function independently of awareness). Within the human immune system, memory can be isolated from human awareness, and my project employs data from fundamental immunology to bridge immunology and philosophical research on memory and diachronic identity, showing how memory helps account for survival, physiological individuality, and individual immune uniqueness. Professor Lee Cronin and his team at the University of Glasgow contended that theories such as evolutionary theory and Darwinian natural selection forgot to address the role of biological memory (nor the space in which new phenotypic variants are generated); similarly, repeated efforts to develop a comprehensive theory of immunity also disregarded the immune system’s ability to acquire memory. In the 1950s, MacFarlane Burnet enunciated the ‘Self-non-self-theory’; in the 1990s, Poly Matzinger enunciated the ‘Danger theory’; Niels Jerne (also in the 1980-90s) enunciated the ‘Idiotypic network’; and, more recently, in 2012, Thomas Pradeu enunciated the‘Continuity theory’. All these theories implicitly assume an immune identity; however, they neither conceptualise it nor explicitly highlight memory’s role.

Theoretical frameworks of immunity have changed (and will likely continue to change) to accommodate cutting-edge empirical findings. During my three-month stay at KLI (from November 2026 to January 2027), I intend to examine how the ‘self-non-self- theory’ and the ‘danger theory’ have shifted ontological assumptions, and to what extent these shifts resulted from pragmatic decisions. To this end, I believe KLI’s multidisciplinary research environment will play a crucial role in fostering discussion and the exchange of ideas, as well as in confronting my own possible biases as a trained scientist. I also hope to contribute to KLI’s ongoing activities. This task is part of the third chapter of my PhD thesis and builds on my previous work on the historical conceptualisation of immune memory, uniqueness and identity. The task I am to perform at KLI is timely and important, as immunology is undergoing rapid, major transformations. Experimental advances, such as in silico modelling and omics technologies, are revealing new molecular ways of seeing actors in immune memory (e.g., protein methylation, amino acid patterns, human leukocyte antigens, and immune stem cell markers), making it even harder to formulate a general theory of immunity. This task, along with the fourth chapter on personalised medicine, is pivotal to the main conclusions of my doctoral thesis.