The role of the university in recovering from COVID-19 and preparing for future crises-perspectives and experiences from Sunway University, Malaysia.

This article is part of the Research Topic 'Health Systems Recovery in the Context of COVID-19 and Protracted Conflict'. Universities, as engines of knowledge creation and dissemination and as incubators of disciplined yet original thinking, have a key role to play in tackling the most complex challenges that societies and our planet face, from infectious diseases to the climate emergency. This commentary presents the perspectives from Sunway University, a young private university in Malaysia that made a strong commitment to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) prior to the pandemic, and its experiences in promoting research, innovation, and learning as part of COVID-19 recovery and in preparation for future crises such as the climate emergency.

Immunogenicity and safety of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in clinical trials.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections were first detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and resulted in a worldwide pandemic in 2020. SARS-CoV-2 infections totalled more than 180 million with 3.9 million deaths as of June 24, 2021.

Regional Diets Targeting Gut Microbial Dynamics to Support Prolonged Healthspan.

In the last 150 years, we have seen a significant increase in average life expectancy, associated with a shift from infectious to non-communicable diseases. The rising incidence of these diseases, for which age is often the largest risk factor, highlights the need for contemporary societies to improve healthy ageing for their growing silver generations. As ageing is an inevitable, non-reversing and highly individualised process, we need to better understand how non-genetic factors like diet choices and commensal gut microbes can modulate the biology of ageing.

Development of multi-epitope peptide-based vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a pandemic involving so far more than 22 million infections and 776,157 deaths. Effective vaccines are urgently needed to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infections. No vaccines have yet been approved for licensure by regulatory agencies.