Genomics AG

Genomics AG is a parent corporation whose main business is holding informational patents coming from gene sequencing projects of other companies under its control:

• Transphylum Import Export, Ltd.: a company based in the UCAS, devoted to isolating genes from various species and making them useful in different contexts. Despite their name, they mostly seem to operate within the order Mammalia. Their head office on the outskirts of Seattle has a number of environments for their animals, including a “petting zoo” for the more pettable creatures.
  • Pelts, Inc.: grows animal pelts on artificial templates. They have both animal-shaped templates (in order to produce appropriate fur patterning) and larger ones (when all you want is the right texture). They make a point of letting you pet the animal that was the source for your coonskin cap or mink coat, so you can verify that the animal is healthy and happy.
  • Transplant Technologies, Ltd.: creates transgenic animals growing human-compatible transplants (qualify as “type O” organs). The organs are cheaper than human ones, and involve fewer matters of conscience for the squeamish.
  • Critterware, Inc.: creates bioware based on animal traits. Their flagship product is animal pelts to replace the hair on your scalp. They also have adapted the feline tapetum and iris to human eyes (effectively giving low-light vision, using a different method than just pulling the right genes out of those directing formation of eyes in Elves or Orks).
• Designer Genes Corporation: based in Tir Tairngire, specialized in gene therapy (such as suppressing oncogenes, curing defects like cystic fibrosis, and so on), and doing research into germ-line therapy that will correct such traits for your children. Rumors include the possibility of creating a retrovirus that will turn everybody into elves, that they create designer children to order, and that they’re creating a new “super-elf” to out-evolve everyone. They deny all of these.
• Sequence Systems, Inc.: based in California Free State. Sequence Systems is pushing the envelope on gene sequencing technology, producing everything from faster, more accurate cell scanners to making it easier to sequence an entire creature’s genome from a small sample.
• Biodiversity Repair & Restoration, Inc.: facilities in the UCAS and the Caribbean League. Engaged in bringing back animals from extinction and near-extinction. Cynics state that they pick the animals for useful traits, which they then attempt to keep a monopoly over.

Runs

Snipe Hunt

The runners are invited to a “meet” at the TPIE facility on the outskirts of Seattle by a woman with very short hair and very little knowledge of shadow etiquette. (She got the information on the runners from ???.) After being given a bit of hush money— “this is how you do non-disclosure agreements in the shadows, right?”— they are taken on a tour of the TPIE “petting zoo” and then admitted to a back room where they have some new creations under wraps: genuine ancient Egyptian housecats created from DNA in cat mummies, and a baby woolly mammoth nursing from a normal elephant mother. In person, the woman’s scalp is a pelt from a silver tabby (that the runners can meet if they want).

The folks at TPIE have been trying to get their hands on DNA samples for a number of rare creatures, but the governments preserving them are charging too high a price. TPIE want to hire the runners to go out and get samples; they are interested in the Twilight Brigade in particular because of their reputation for subtlety and non-lethal work.

Newsleak

Newsleak, the pirate trideo report and Matrix-based magazine, has heard some interesting dirt and want some bodies exhumed and closeted skeletons outed... come up with something interesting relating to Designer Genes Corporation.