Anne McLaren

Dame Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren, DBE D.Phil. FRS FRCOG (April 26 1927 – July 7 2007^[1]) was the daughter of Henry McLaren, 2nd Baron Aberconway and Christabel McNaughten. She came from a family of industrial magnates known for their attention to Liberal politics and women's suffrage, but would turn her own intellectual gifts to becoming a leading figure in developmental biology. Her work helped lead to human in vitro fertilisation (IVF) ^[2]. She received many honours for her contributions to science, including being made an officer of the Royal Society.

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Early training

She studied zoology at Oxford University, gaining entrance to Lady Margaret Hall and obtaining an MA. Researching mite infestation of Drosophila under J. B. S. Haldane, she continued postgraduate studies at Oxford, first under Peter Medawar on the genetics of rabbits and then on neurotropic murine viruses under Kingsley Sanders. She obtained her D.Phil. in 1952 and married fellow student Dr Donald Michie on October 6, 1952.

Early career and married life

As a couple, McLaren and Donald Michie worked together at University College, London 1952–1955, and afterwards at the Royal Veterinary College, on the variation in the number of lumbar vertebrae in mice as a function of maternal environment. Dr McLaren would later take up research on fertility in mice, including superovulation and superpregnancy.^[3] During this period, three children were born to the couple:

• Susan Fiona Dorinthea Michie (b. 19 June 1955)
• Jonathan Mark Michie (b. 25 March 1957)
• Caroline Ruth Michie (b. 1 August 1959)

However, the marriage ended in a divorce in 1959, and McLaren moved to the Institute of Animal Genetics in Edinburgh to continue her research. The couple remained on good terms; Michie also moved to Edinburgh. The experience of raising children as a single career parent made McLaren a strong advocate for government assistance towards childcare.^[2]

Later career and honours

Dr McLaren spent the next 15 years (1959–1974) at the Institute of Animal Genetics, studying a variety of topics related to fertility, development and epigenetics, including the development of mouse embryonic transfer, immunocontraception, and the skeletal characteristics of chimeras. In 1974, she left Edinburgh to become the Director of the MRC Mammalian Development Unit in London. In 1992, she retired from the Mammalian Development Unit and moved to Cambridge, joining the Wellcome/CRC Institute, later the Gurdon Institute.^[3] She was made a Fellow-Commoner of Christ's College, Cambridge in 1991.^[3]

In 1975, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, and from 1991 to 1996, she held the position of Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, the first female officer in the society's 300-year history.^[2] In 1986, she was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists for her pioneering work on fertility. In 1993, she was created a DBE. From 1993 to 1994, she was president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2002, she was awarded the Japan Prize with Andrzej K. Tarkowski for their contributions to developmental biology.

Death

McLaren and her ex-husband Michie died in a car crash on July 7, 2007.^[1]

Trivia

• As a child she also appeared in the film version of H.G. Wells' novel Things to Come.^[4]
• In her later life, she was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain ^[5], which made travel to the USA difficult for a while ^[6].
• Anne was a big fan of jam doughnuts, she would tell her grandchildren that they must be healthy as they were full of calories.

References

Obituaries

• Azim Surani, Jim Smith: Anne McLaren (1927 – 2007). Nature 448, 2007, p. 764 – 765.

• Janet Rossant, Brigid Hogan: Anne McLaren (1927 – 2007). Science 317, 2007, p. 609 doi:10.1126/science.1147801