Yizhen Zhang, aka Zach Zhang, was a bioengineer at Tianqiao Biologics. He has since been disavowed by the company and is wanted by the Chinese government for theft of government intellectual property.
At Tianqiao Biologics, Zach developed a synthetic lifeform. Though initial trials were a failure to thrive, the project began to see success when it was redesigned to undergo symbiogenesis with a host cell. After this, the project quickly began to shift focus to design the synthetic lifeform to coexist symbiotically with a living host and enhance the abilities of the host by embuing the host's cells with stem-cell like qualities.
Tianqiao Biologics tried to sell the IP of this project to the government for military applications but received pushback from Zachary Zhang. When Dr. Zhang was unable to stop the deal, he sabotaged his own project, turning it into a virus that caused its infected to undergo uncontrolled and unpredictable cellular generation. He himself disappeared with the only known surviving strain of the uncorrupted variant. The tampered variant was so virulent and uncontrollable, it had to be completely destroyed, along with the lab that housed it, and without Dr. Zhang, Tianqiao Biologics has not been able to reproduce the successful strain.
Though there is a warrant out for his arrest, it is believed that he is being sheltered with his mother's side of the family, the Xiaos of the Golden Phoenix Guild. The full extent of the abilities of the uncorrupted strain of Dr. Zhang's organism is unknown.
