Sentence Correction

Unlike the conviction held by many of her colleagues that genes were reatively simple and static, Barbara McClintock adhered to her own more complicated ideas about how genes might operate, and in 1983, at the age of 81, was awarded a Nobel Prize for her discovery that the genes in corn are capable of moving from one chromosomal site to another.

(A) Unlike the conviction held by many of her colleagues that genes were

(B) Although many of her colleagues were of the conviction of genes being

(C) Contrary to many of her colleagues being convinced that genes were

(D) Even though many of her colleagues were convinced that genes were

(E) Even with many of her colleagues convinced of genes being

OA :- D

Ok, my Doubt here is about the use of BEING here. If we consider the last word of all the choices there is clearly a 3-2 split between were and being. Now here i rejected BEING on the ground that it changes the meaning from the past to the present in the sense that it says genes are currently being relatively simple and static, whereas the original sentence talks about the occurrence of the same in the past.

I may be wrong in my interpretation. Please clarify, Also would be great if you can tell me the usages of word being.