New Delhi, June 11 -- For decades, humanity has played a lethal game of biological catch-up, forever one step behind nature.

From the suffocating grip of COVID-19 to the visceral terror of Ebola or even the seasonal flu, the global response has a frantic race to build a shield, ie a vaccine, only after the arrow has been fired.

What makes it even more difficult is that current vaccines, especially the seasonal flu and the Covid-19 vaccines, use antigens from specific virus strains or variants that have already been detected in humans.

A wide range of these and other viruses continue to circulate in animals that could potentially jump to humans at any time. However, it's not possible to predict which one, or when.

Since viruses are con...