A WORLD WITHOUT MALES?

So, is science about to make male Mammals obsolete?

“I think there are people who will look at this and say, ‘Oh, is this going to replace reproduction? Get rid of men?’ No, it’s not,” Marisa Bartolomei, a molecular biologist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the study tells The Daily Beast.

However, the new research could aid researchers in studying a group of congenital diseases caused by genomic imprinting, such as Prader-willi syndrome (in which children are born with a constant sense of hunger and developmental issues) and Beckwithwiedemann syndrome (a disorder that is characterized by a childhood risk for cancer).

“One could say we have the ability to modify these [genomic imprinting] defects using such techniques,” said Lefebrve. What’s more, as the technology for modifying the specific chemical tags at fault on an individual’s DNA improves, what the study’s researchers have established is a proof-of-concept that other scientists can potentially explore.