Respawn Chambers work as checkpoints, they activate when Gene touches them. If Gene is destroyed, he is spawned right back into the last touched chamber. The Chambers are prone to overheat from constant use though, and stop working if they are used too many times. (In other words, if you run out of lives, Gene's creator has to warp his pieces back to the home base to fix him up and you need to restart the current level from the beginning.)