STING1 and cancer: The implications of EMIR are profound: it lays the groundwork for designing next-generation vaccines in which STING agonists act as precision adjuvants to enhance mucosal and systemic immunity; it informs novel antimicrobial strategies by identifying molecular checkpoints bypassed by persistent pathogens; and it offers a roadmap for cancer therapy through reactivation of epigenetically silenced STING circuits or modulation of PANoptotic cell death.