Biona

**Biona** is a D.A.R.P.A.-funded biotechnology firm present in all incarnations of Raising Dion. Mark Warren worked for this company before his death.

## Comics

In the comic, when Mark was working there, he was a top engineer who was trying to find ways to slow human metabolism and aging, innovate minimal sleep, and plenty of other enhancements to the body. Nicole also worked here as receptionist and it is how she met Mark.

This version of Biona is located in Midtown New York City. Besides Mark's research, it is also a lab “where scientists study child prodigies.” Had the comic gotten a second issue, it would have shown Biona in more detail, as well as some other child prodigies they are studying there (like an Asian-American 10-year-old girl who can throw 50 footballs with pinpoint accuracy, and a Latino boy who plays a difficult Bach concerto on the violin)

The cover image of the comic shows agents, presumably from Biona, tracking Dion and Nicole.

## Short film

In the short film, Biona as a company is not seen, but some of their agents can be seen keeping track of Nicole and Dion; something Nicole tries to avoid.

## Series

In the Netflix Original, BIONA Initiative is located in Atlanta, and is a high-tech research institute that studies weather and creates “climate solutions for a better world.” According to Mark, there are few others that rival their innovative capabilities. However, that is just a front for their true activities. They are deeply involved in the investigation of the Aurora Event, in particular the slow decay of land exposed to this event, which they hope to reverse before it consumes all of Iceland.

While Mark couldn't find evidence that BIONA might have somehow caused the Aurora Event to create super-humans, he considered them capable of it. So far however, this theory of his has not been proven.

BIONA has a secret laboratory, L5, where they test various animals and plant species collected from the area of the Aurora Event. They also secretly track the people exposed to the event to learn more about their powers. Dion also became a target of them when they began to suspect he had powers. BIONA even offered to sponsor the Stem Stars Competition to keep a closer eye on Dion at his school.

Although intentions are good, they are not above using questionable methods to gain results, including kidnapping Dion from the hospital. They have also been tracking mysterious microstorms that occured around the world in the years after the Aurora Event, but don't know that these storms are actually The Crooked Man

In Season 2, they have set up a training facility where Dion and other superpowered people can train their abilities. They also started monitoring a series of mysterious sinkholes that appeared around the world, including 1 behind McKoy Park Elementary. When the Parasitic spores begin to infect people and turn them into plant monsters, Biona starts looking for a cure, and Suzanne even allows Pat Rollins to help them despite knowing of his deeds as the crooked man.

It is also during this season that David Marsh informs Suzanne that Ben Cutler plans to have her replaced since her research so far hasn't delivered anything that can help Biona make a profit, proving that despite Biona's desire to help the world, they are still very much a company that wants to make money. However, after David learns Pat has managed to isolate the P-DNA wich can potentially give people superpowers, and tries to convince the board to sell this gene therapy to the highest bidders, he is turned down because the board deems the risks too high, especially since a test subject for the cure against the parasitic spores already died.

## Known employees

* Mark Warren (formerly)
* Pat Rollins (season 1, briefly in season 2)
* Suzanne Wu
* Lars
* Tasha Patel (Implied)
* Irina Nikolova (Formerly)
* Hamid
* Tevin Wakefield (trainer)
* Alonso Diaz (trainer)
* Ben Cutler (chairman of the board, formerly)
* Cora (board member)
* David Marsh (VP of operations, formerly)

## Gallery

Front DeskBIONA vanInside Lab L5Suzanne Wu's officeBIONA tracking peopleCrates with test animals are brought into BIONA.Entrance to L5Biona training facility
## References

1. ↑ First issue of the comic book.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Raising Dion: a diverse comic book that turns its back on superhero tropes". *The Guardian*. September 1, 2015. Retrieved August 4, 2019.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "ISSUE #106: Super Friends". *Raising Dion*. Season 1. Episode 6.
4. ↑ “ISSUE #107: Why So Vomity?”. *Raising Dion*. Season 1. Episode 7.
5. ↑ “ISSUE #108: You Won't Like Him When He's Angry”. *Raising Dion*. Season 1. Episode 8.