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Anne McLaren
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dame Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren, DBE D.Phil. FRS FRCOG (b. April 26, 1927) is 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.
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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.
The couple 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 superpreganancy. 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.
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 Directory of the MRC Mammalian Development Union in London, and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1975.
In 1986, she was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists for her pioneering work on fertility. In 1991, she became the first female officer of the Royal Society, holding the post of Foreign Secretary until 1996. In 1993, she was created a DBE. From 1993–1994, 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.