Markus Stormrider
Regent
Honestly I fail to connect how dna relates to gates/portals to alternative galaxies. Though I wouldn't be surprised if the narrative favours alien life. Judging from unknown dna it might be just traces of it and an attempt to reverse the tooth of time by reintroducing the unknown creatures. Just speculation or an wild splicing path. Though I hope they won't go Bioshock's path as splicing resulted in cancer, run away mutations and insanity.
Gates would be interesting too but a bit deeper down fantasy SF. Even speculative alien splicing is fantasy SF. I kinda like the way they've went from SAAB. Where Mars was like an test run leading into anarchy and resolving the mess from an power vacuum. SAAB and Venus at least provided some speculative useful purposes for asteroids and Venus especially Venus' concept was a fresh breath of air and speaks to the imagination.
Ehm, just watch the tv series (they're REALLY good space sci fi, best i've seen the past 6 years really!), and/or read the 9 books as well. the protomolecule mentioned is of alien origin, of a race that existed aeons ago before mankind which created that network of gates. and the molecule changes anything it comes in contact with. but like i said, watch the series. It runs on amazon prime, in case you want to view it in a legally allowed manner