She was born Elvira Puika to Mikhail and Anya, the middle child of 5 children, and the daughter of a skilled surgeon. Initially, her family migrated from Latvia just before WW II, and her father was one of the members that made a name for himself while secretly, he was a Company man. Yana is the second girl of 2 girls and 3 boys. Her mother was a stay-at-home mother, with what one would call 'traditional values' which she tried to instill into her children. The Puika family is known for their brains and their accomplishments as 3 of the Puika children-including Yana-went went into the medical field.
Initially, Yana was being prepped to live a life similar to her mother, taught what women are 'expected' to be, in a rather sexist household. But Yana displayed a twisted intelligence, even at an early age. On the surface, she seemed to absorb what she was taught, but she simply changed it into her own interpretation and made it her strength.
Even back then, Yana had the urge to see what she could get away with, and use her talents and attributes to attain whatever goal she set out for. She had daddy wrapped around her little finger, and she was able to convince him to place her in schools of higher learning, being sent to all of the best private schools.
When she was an early bloomer, growing into her maturity a year earlier than usual, by the age of 13, which marked several changes for her. Her ability initially manifested in the form of what seemed like viral psychometry. She had this sense that something was just not right about her, and when she touched her, she could see the problem before it began. Her mother had contracted Shingles, which is a herpes zoster viral infection. When Yana sensed it, it was in its early stages, but Yana could see what the end result of this illness would be.
There was really no precedence for Yana's knowledge into her mother's condition, as the virus had not yet replicated enough to become a problem, or be detected, so Yana kept quiet with the knowledge that her mother would soon be pretty ill. This particular strain was resistant to the methods of treatment normally used, and this is also something Yana knew somehow. She was left to watch with the knowledge that her mother would soon be very ill.
This started her down the path to her ambitious nature. She dove into her studies as the years went on, finding interest in nearly anything to deal with the medical field and microbiology. All through her academic career, she discovered that she could detect when people were infected with viruses, the more knowledge she gained, the better she began to understand her ability. She eventually learned that she could control certain aspects of viruses, as she made it her goal to cure her ill mother.
During her high school years, she began her 'research'. Yana used her ability secretly to test her limitations with the common influenza virus that turned up in her peers at school. She expanded what she knew about the illness, and through several trials, she learned enough to deal with her mother's problem. But that time, her mother had been bedridden for a little while, and after a visit from Yana, who was home from school for vacation, the virus miraculously went dormant, and her viral load dropped dramatically.
Yana was rather please with herself, as her mother recovered on her own from the removal the damage that the virus was causing. With all she had learned so far, she wanted more, she wondered the about the connection of viruses and their genetic changing properties. She discovered about the existence of the Evolved by finding notes of her father in his office. Yana grew interested in what it might take to control this outbreak of superhuman abilities, and it explained where her own abilities came from. She figured that somehow, through viral means, if she could combine what was known about genetics and her abilities that she could generate Evolved abilities in Non-Evolved, as well as eliminate the factors of randomization.
It was fortunate for her that she attended Columbia University, around the same time her cousin Brigita did. Here she met the acquaintance of Elijah Ruslan, an upperclassman with a brilliant mind, and an interest in her field of study. Their relationship was awkward at best, which was entirely due to Elijah's specific personality, but the two worked well together. Yana of course kept her knowledge of the Evolved to herself, but she needed Elijah's expertise in genetics to continue her research and fill in the cracks of her secret agenda. Elijah was more than happy to spill his theories and such to Yana, as the woman seemed eager to learn.
Sometime after her bachelor's degree, her parents introduced her to Dr. Gregori Blite, a surgeon at her father's hospital. He was a prestigious and rather wealthy, meeting him at a formal party that her father had gone to. The older man was charming to entertain Yana, and he at least interested her for a little while. Enough for her to marry him, living a comfortable lifestyle where she wouldn't have to worry about security. This bored her, as she had ambitions, and before long, she was experimenting with individuals again, testing out new strains of viruses in grad school, while growing tired of her husband.
Gregori still had his uses, but it required him to be dead. The question was did Yana possess the ability to actually take a life? Yes, in the name of science. It was pure fate that Gregori got himself bitten by mosquitoes on a camping trip. In which Yana took the opportunity to infect him with West Nile virus.
At this stage of her education, Yana was doing an internship at a research, so she had contact with various viruses, to be able to bring WNV to her husband. She would experiment on him at this point, keeping the virus in a dormant state for a few weeks, and then kicking it into active. Normally, the condition isn't too fatal, severe complications from the virus are very rare. However, in her hospital visits, Yana made the rare probability an actuality.
What seemed like devotion and attentiveness was actually Yana fiddling with his infection a bit, and observing the results. She knew full well what her end result would be, but it was the in-between that really counted. It was like slow cooking an ant with a magnifying glass, and no one was the wiser.
When she was finished with her observations, Yana allowed his condition to worsen, resulting in her husband's death. With him gone, she inherited his estate, and could continue her research into manufacturing Evolved abilities. However, she would have to attract the attention of some prominent people in the scientific field. She did this in grad school by working with various viral research projects, using her ability to develop vaccines for several strains of both the flu and HPV.
Sometime back in 2006, after the bomb, she had to return to her family who had been affected by the distaster and help her to pick up the broken pieces that were caused by the bomb. By this time, she was just going through the motions, holding her research above the emotional trauma she should have been experiencing with the losses she suffered. She lost one of her brothers in the tragic event, and his son was left on his own. The reveal of the Evolved actually took more of a precedence in her life than her personal disasters. There is still a bit of goodness in Yana's heart, and she decided to take Keagan in, as she had much of the resources to do so properly. In a way, he was the child she and her husband didn't have. Even if he was a bit of a troubled child, most of his problems were medical, so she didn't really have too much of a problem with it.
She continued to keep the true nature of her ability secret, when registration came around, she passed her power off as Weakness Detection, by being given a few cases to deal with when displaying her ability. She identified the viruses in their bodies, and she recalled the symptoms caused by each one, displaying that as her ability, passing it off as something lower than what she actually had. In doing so she could continue her secret experiments beyond anyone's notice, and cultivate new strains of viruses. She never took things too far, such as allowing a more dangerous virus to be detected, or letting her experiments expire, save in the case of her husband.
Upon receiving her doctorate, Yana had enough credibility that an old friend put in a good word for her at the Institute, earning her a job there.
