Gene Therapy

Crafting bioware and inducing a mutation requires the services of a professional genetic engineer, or someone with ranks in Life Science, Medicine, and Engineering equal to the level of the bioware and a genetic engineering lab.  It takes a gene therapist 1 hour per item level to create enough bioware to successfully induce a mutation.  Once its manufactured bioware has 100-year shelf life.  

Gene therapy is typically delivered by a series of injections.  The injections allow the bioware to spread throughout the host as a controlled infection.  Once all the cells in the host are infected the mutation is complete.  The time it takes to induce a mutation is dependent on the type of bioware.

RETROVIRUSES

Designer retroviruses play a pivotal role in gene therapy.   A retrovirus is a single-stranded RNA virus that infects a host cell.  Once the virus infects a cell it uses its own reverse transcriptase enzyme to produce DNA from its artificial RNA genome.  Essentially, its RNA is a reverse copy of the virus DNA it creates in the host cell.  The infected host cell then treats the virus DNA as part of its own genome. An infected cell translates and transcribes the virus genes along with its own and while also producing more copies of the virus.  Eventually all actively replicating cells within the host are infected and the mutation is complete.

All the retroviruses presented in this work are designer and you won’t accidently contract one though a sneeze or intimacy. Changes made by retroviruses to the character’s genome and the mutations they induce are permanent. Recipients of retroviruses do not pass their mutations on to their offspring 

Retroviruses work by targeting and replacing very specific sections of the DNA strands. Unfortunately, different retroviruses often overlap in the sections of DNA they are replacing.  This is why most subjects cannot handle more than retrovirus. Put simply, retroviruses are incompatible with each other, and characters are limited to one retrovirus unless; the retroviruses description states otherwise, the character elects to take a drawback (see Appendix 3: Minor Deformities), or the character takes a feat which allows the character to use more than one retrovirus.

It takes 1 day per level of the retrovirus to completely infect a subject and induce mutation.

DNA SPLICING

DNA splicing is a special use case of a retrovirus where one organism’s DNA is cut apart and the DNA from a different organism is slipped into the gaps. DNA splicing allows characteristics of two completely different creatures to be shared.  DNA splicing follows the rules for retroviruses in all respects.  However, DNA splicing often results in obvious physical changes which are hard to hide.  In societies, which are unfamiliar with a specific type of DNA splicing, the subjects are often mistaken for and treated like mutants.

ENDOGENOUS RETROVIRUS

An endogenous retrovirus is almost identical to a designer retrovirus with one exception; the mutation induced by the retrovirus is passed down to its offspring.  Some might think this is a good thing but there are some very negative consequences to passing down a modified genome. 

 If two adults with genomes modified by different endogenous retrovirus have children, the results are almost always tragic.  Most die shortly after birth due to genetic defects, but the ones that live are always considered mutants.  Their mutations are almost always wildly different from their parents.

Children of parents who received identical endogenous retroviruses always exhibit the mutation of their parents.  If one parent has an endogenous retrovirus and the other does not, there is a 50% chance the offspring gains the mutation, and a 50% chance the endogenous retrovirus becomes recessive trait.  Generations later parents might unknowingly pass on the same endogenous retrovirus and the child may inherit the same mutation as one of their great great grandparent’s, or a set of incompatible genes resulting in a mutant. 

Endogenous retroviruses have been banned in many systems and worlds, because of the chaos it can cause for future generations, however, there are many unscrupulous persons producing black market endogenous retroviruses because they are 10% cheaper to produce than a typical retrovirus.  It’s even traditional in some cultures to get gene screened prior to marriage to ensure purity. 

ADENOVIRUS

A designer adenovirus is a double stranded DNA virus which is able to replicate in the nucleus of vertebrate cells using the host’s own replication machinery.  Each type of designer adenovirus was originally based on adenoviruses which cause conjunctivitis, tonsillitis, an ear infection, or croup.  The adenovirus was chosen because of its fast onset time and the host’s ability to eradicate the virus from its body systems without the need of an antiviral compound. Thus, adenoviruses are temporary and require repeated infections to continue functioning. The materials for crafting adenoviruses are consequently less costly than those of other bioware.

Unlike naturally occurring adenoviruses, their designer cousins cannot be accidently spread to others.

Designer adenoviruses are extremely fast acting.  It takes 1 round per level of the bioware to produce its intended effect or mutation.  After 2d6 hours, the subject reverts back to its original genetic form unless another adenovirus is administered.

 Only one adenovirus can be active at a time.  If two or more adenoviruses are active in a subject, the subject automatically gains the sickened condition. 

GENETIC TEMPLATES

The potential uses of gene therapy are not limited to single special abilities. GMs can simulate just about any combination modification by creating gene therapy templates. Characters can acquire these templates by purchasing them and undergoing endogenous metamorphosis.  See Section 3, “Genetic Templates” for additional information.

Although gene therapy templates are created by series of endogenous retroviruses, in this case the induced mutations are considered dominant traits.  The offspring of anyone who has undergone endogenous metamorphosis will always inherit the gene therapy template of the highest level.  Any other endogenous retroviruses will be superseded and overwritten by this template.  If the character happens to have a retrovirus or an endogenous retrovirus before they acquire a gene therapy template these earlier retroviruses will be overwritten and nullified by the “good” genes presented in the newly acquired template.