Short version:
Sitchen inverted the story, in "the interests of his people"
So review the history and jettison what Sitchen wrote, but keep in mind these were physical creatures not amorphous incorporeal "gods".
Anu - head dude (king)
Enlil - oldest son (prince, in line for throne)
Enki - half son (not in line for throne) Geneticist, rebelled 2x was "cast down" and imprisoned here
Marduk - Enki's son, helped daddy rebel
Mes - software key that holds the vibration tables for use with their other tech
Tiamat - both a person (f) and the representation of the "watery" planet which is now the asteroid belt
Tiamat got her boyfriend to steal the Mes, they got the Mes back and Marduk used the Mes from within the Great pyramid at Giza and blew the planet up. The ziggurats & pyramids are located on the nodal points of ley lines in order to damp the vibrations so the Mes could be used without destroying this planet (and other reasons).
Enki, the geneticist went through a bunch of iterations but his creatures were out of control, he was supposed to destroy them but kept some genetic material. Illegally (directly in contravention of what Anu (king) and council ordered).
Enlil was transferred the throne, Enki & son rebelled. After his rebellion and having been "cast down" and imprisoned here with his creations. Enlil used some of the genetic material Enki had saved, added his own and put a group here to watch over the planet until his return.
Infuriated, Enki made a new group with even more of his own genetic material. They are unique on the planet - they have a fanatical loyalty to him (religious or not) and each other, and an irrational and implacable hatred of the last group made, the one with Enlil's genetic material. They have a specific genetic marker. They have very certain traits that have not changed over time, they pervert, defile, degrade and make nothing beautiful.
So the original creatures that Enki made are many - very populous and unfortunately have not progressed very much over time.
Enlil's group and the last group Enki made are the 2 groups at issue.
Enki's group own Google, YouTube, facebook, twitter, media, academia, 23&me etc.
Answer is yes - they are very interested in genetics for several reasons. One is to create genetic-specific bioweapons, another is because there is tech they cannot use because they don't have the right genetics.
I know this will make some people upset or angry, but there it is.