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Gene Smelter
Gene Smelter (CivBE)
Building in Beyond Earth
Cost 350 Production
Maintenance 1 Energy Energy
Requires Transgenics
Specialist slots 2 Scientists
Effect +3 Health Health
Notes None

History[ | ]

Advances in xenogenetics and transgenetics demanded facilities with sophisticated equipment for the genetic engineering, recombinant DNA processes, and RNA splicing necessary for research. Targeting a specific gene, homologous recombination allows a biotechnician to “smelt” an endogenous gene, removing exons and/or inducing point mutations. Alternately, an exogenous gene can be inserted in its place. Colonial gene smelters usually engage in creating recombinant DNA also (or chimeric DNA if material from different species is involved) and replicating it through molecular cloning. Research undertaken at the smelters have led to fungi- and pest-resistant crops, recombinant somatotropin and human growth hormone, recombinant insulin, and a number of transgenetic crops developed from indigenous species. In the health field, the smelters usually generate the baseline genes for pharming, the insertion of genes that code for useful pharmaceuticals into species that otherwise do not produce such. Colonial pharming operations have produced a number of therapeutic proteins, including cytokines, growth factors, recombinant enzymes, synthetic bloods, and a variety of medicinal and veterinary vaccines. Currently, according to academic publications, researchers at various gene smelters are investigating the production of aprotinin, avidin, and trypsin from engineered fungi native to this planet.

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