Developmental Neogenetics Amalgamated

Developmental Neogenetics Amalgamated (DNA for short) is a privately owned and funded corporation that focuses on genetic engineering, mapping the human genome, and hunting werewolves. They regard lycanthropy as a rare genetic disease that threatens the stability of the human genome and must be cured.

It is not to say that DNA focuses solely on the Garou. Other genetic diseases, like cystic fibrosis, are also under scrutiny by the corporation, but special focus is directed at GLS (their term for the shapeshifting genom).

History[]

Developmental Neogenetics Amalgamated was founded in 1976 by Mitchell Howak. Its first contact with the supernatural happened when a young and inexperienced Glass Walker stumbled into one of their labs in 1992, who was captured and thoroughly studied. With the data from the captured werewolf, the scientists were able to capture a Children of Gaia Lupus and several Kinfolk. Up to the date, several other scientists are involved, among them social researchers and physicists.

Organization[]

Developmental Neogenetics Amalgamated is divided into four division: Research and Development (RD), who are the most involved with the captured subjects; Cyberbiotechnology (CBT), who are focused on nanotechnology to suppress the release of the responsible hormones; Management and Finance (MF), who run the daily affairs of the corporation and Security and Investigation (SI), who protect DNA labs and make sure the test subjects do not escape.

Methods[]

DNA sends its teams out with chemical weapons and poisons intended to inhibit lycanthropic shapeshifting and regeneration. Once they subdue a werewolf, they bring it to the laboratory where it undergoes an intense battery of tests intended to isolate the “lycanthrope gene.” So far, they haven’t discovered the sequence that causes this “disease.”

DNA has developed the drug methyldelerian, which can prevent or mitigate Delirium. As the drug is mundane in nature, it can be manufactured, although its effects are still random and need scientific scrutiny.

DNA does not profit directly from any patronage of the Weaver, unlike Shinzui, but is instead composed of ordinary humans with generally good intentions. Sometimes, they receive anonymous funding from other interested companies, under them Shinzui and the Progenitors of the Technocracy, but they remain unaware of the supernatural world around them.

Project: Reaper[]

DNA has an emergency plan in the case that GLS would run rampart: An airborne virus that will infect every carrier of GLS, Kinfolk as well as Garou, and kill them. To this point, however, DNA refuses to use the virus to solve the shapeshifter problem.

In the "Weaver Ascendant" of the Apocalypse, DNA discovers the existence of other shapeshifters. Horrified by the sheer adaptability of GLS, they release Project Reaper, killing most Kinfolk and shifters in the world (except the Ratkin, who are immune to the virus).

Theories[]

DNA believes that the cause of GLS (Genetic Lycanthrope Syndrome) is a series of recessive genes that cause the transformation. Kinfolk are seen as disease carriers who have the necessary genes for GLS to occur, but not the right combination.

Homids are referred to as carriers of GLS-1H and Lupus as carriers of GLS-1L, signifying the onset of the First Change around puberty. Metis are characterized as GLS-2, where the symptoms of GLS occur directly after childbirth.

According to DNA, who are still struggling to explain the shift in body mass, the transformations, as well as the phenomenal healing process, are the result of vast hormonal surges that are triggered by stress situations. Other werewolf abilities, like the Delirium or the ability to use reflective surfaces to step sideways, still have to be studied.