"Aside from the chromosomes unique to vampires, vampires and ordinary wizards also have roughly a 0.01% base-pair difference across their other chromosomes, involving about a hundred and forty genes. Some of the genetic differences are very small, while others are entirely additional."
Jawad, the head of the vampire research group, handed a report to Murphy and briefed him on their latest progress.
"There are twenty-three genes among these whose functions we can roughly identify. As for the rest, we basically know nothing yet," Jawad said. "If we want to carry out targeted treatment, we'd best clarify the functions of these special genes, find the key gene that causes their photophobia, and then correct it or knock it out."
"How long will that take?" Murphy asked.
"That... is very hard to estimate..." Jawad said. "Our understanding of the genome is still very rudimentary, and no one has ever done this kind of research before. The data in this field is almost completely blank. We have to start controlled experiments from scratch and search for the corresponding molecular pathways... Even with time accelerators, which can greatly shorten the time needed for trait expression, the overall volume of experiments is too large. It's very hard to give a concrete timeframe..."
It was only 1996. In history, the Human Genome Project had only just begun, and humanity's understanding of genes was still at a very basic stage. Umbrella and the magic laboratories had already gone much further than the rest of the world, but even so, they had only just started.
In truth, much of the remaining work no longer involved any major technical bottlenecks. With Cas9 gene-editing technology and time accelerators, perhaps in only four or five years, humanity's achievements in this field could catch up to the progress that would otherwise take