Dr. Closs Bordatella is a retired epidemeologist. He is credited as being a crucial part of the team that prevented a pandemic.
After suffering a traumatic brain inujury during the peak of his career, the part of his brain that stored the only remaining memory of his mother's face was damaged beyond repair. The resulting grief caused him to develop severe mysophobia. He quickly funneled his immense fortune into constructing a hermetically sealed bunker in a secret location, from which he entered and has not exited since in 50 years.
Recently, the doctor has begun contacting the world above ground again. A lot has changed since his time, so he seeks to assemble a team of researchers to study the natural world in his stead. He recruits the top students from four different universities (see: Ciney Verity, Rod Marbleton, Meowza Woofley, Zobot The Robot) to beta-test the Monstamanual-- a modified citizen science gadget from his childhood designed to teach the very young about ecology-- by tasking the four with a mission biblical in it's enormity: catching them all.
Dr. Bordatella is well liked by his four students, though they reportedly don't care very much for each other. He has also recently entered a business partnership with Dr. Derek Stitcher, the inventor of the original Mostamanual. Stitcher was cooincidentally also presumed dead, until he was discovered recently to have actually been preserved in a large jar of pickling liquid for the last 190 years.