Dr James Marcus was one of the original founders of Umbrella Pharmaceuticals and was also credited with the discovery of the Progenitor virus which he isolated from a unique flower (named the Sonnentreppe - Stairway of the Sun) which only grew in a cave in Africa named the Garden of the Sun. The virus had extraordinary properties which would imbue a person with the correct genetic profile with superhuman strength and intelligence - however the virus was incredibly selective and brutally killed 99% of users, essentially rejecting their 'weak' genetics.
Returning to America and subsequently began employment under future Umbrella partner Dr
Oswell E. Spencer, he was given space within the
Spencer Mansion to research the virus he was able to observe the Progenitor virus in different situations. Most interestingly at this point he witnessed the virus latching onto a damaged e.coli specimen which then healed it, mutated it and then forced it to aggressively multiply. Bringing these findings to Dr Spencer, the two immediately began setting up the Umbrella Pharmaceuticals business.
Requiring more Progenitor samples, the company decided to seize the African village which the virus was obtained; this was by force and subsequently all of the inhabitants were eliminated by force. Then a purpose-built facility was constructed around the Garden of the Sun which began to process the Sonnentreppe flowers and extract Progenitor strains which were then shipped directly to Dr Marcus over at the
Umbrella Executive Training School which was set up nearby the
Spencer Mansion. Here, Dr Marcus was able to research the virus in relative peace and experimentation began to try and isolate the part of Progenitor which caused the superhuman abilities - and for an extremely long time this was becoming impossible. Many animal subjects were used and they all perished - his research showed that mortality rate was just under 100% and so something had to be done to reduce this; and this was where the
t-Virus came in.
A breakthrough came when Dr Marcus spliced
Leech DNA with the Progenitor strain - the Leeches somehow mutated the virus within their bodies leaving something more suitable in their blood which could then be extracted. After this point he continued to experiment with the mutated virus which became known as the Tyrant Virus (or
t-Virus) - and a new project was started to attempt to create superhuman soldiers which the company could then sell for profit.
However, Dr Marcus was becoming increasingly more desperate and began using stolen orphan children as well as homeless people as test subjects, with almost all of them suffering while they mutated gradually in unknown ways. The direction he was taking his research plus the fact that he was overly fascinated with his Leeches also disturbed other Umbrella employees and so he became distant from his colleagues; continuing his mad research by himself.
