Dr Anne Mclaren, DBE, FRS

2007 MARCH OF DIMES PRIZE IN DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

ANNE MCLAREN, DBE, D.Phil, FRS, FRCOG Principal Research Associate Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute University of Cambridge, England

In a remarkable career that has spanned more than half a century, Prof. Anne McLaren has repeatedly pushed forward the boundaries of our knowledge of developmental biology and reproduction. Moreover, she has mentored and inspired future generations of scientists, many of who have gone on to become leaders in mammalian developmental biology themselves. And she has continuously helped guide society through the ethical choices and dilemmas posed by advances in reproductive technology. Prof. McLaren began her career as a zoologist working with mice, and she has studied this animal all her life. In 1958, Prof. McLaren and fellow biologist John Biggers published a landmark article in Nature explaining how they had succeeded in growing a mouse embryo in a test tube, and then in transplanting it to be born “naturally.” This scientific first paved the way for an unprecedented leap in our understanding of reproductive mechanisms and eventually led to the human in vitro fertilization treatments used today. “ It Gets More Exciting All the Time” Prof. McLaren has always taught by example, and one of her most important lessons has been to cultivate curiosity and take every question seriously. She says she often stopped what she was doing in order to answer questions from her three children, who would accompany her to the lab on weekends. On their part, her students deeply appreciate her genuine interest in them and her gentle encouragement. Her “genius as a teacher” was noted in a special 2001 issue about her of The International Journal of Developmental Biology.

-more- MCLAREN/2 Prof. McLaren’s own formal education was interrupted at age 12 by World War II. But she read widely, and after the war ended, she applied to Oxford University. She chose biology as her subject because, she says with characteristic humor, “it seemed to be the easiest subject to swat up for an Oxford scholarship.” Accepted to Lady Margaret Hall, she graduated with a first class Honors degree in zoology. She continued postgraduate studies at Oxford and obtained her doctorate in 1952 In 1952, she was awarded a fellowship to work at University College, London, where she published her first influential studies on mouse development. After moving to the Royal Veterinary College of London, she began her collaboration with John Biggers. In 1959, Prof. McLaren moved to the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where she worked at the Agriculture Research Council’s Unit of Animal Genetics, studying a variety of topics related to fertility, development, and epigenetics. In 1974, Prof. McLaren was appointed Director of the Medical Research Council’s Mammalian Development Unit in London, where she served until 1992. In that year, she moved to her current position at The Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute in Cambridge. Throughout her career, Prof. McLaren’s research interests have ranged widely, spanning developmental biology, reproductive biology, and genetics -- including molecular genetics -- always using the laboratory mouse as a model system. “Those topics get you around the life cycle,” says Prof. McLaren. Although now semi-retired, the 80-year-old scientist continues to work at her small lab in Cambridge. Her current work focuses on primordial germ cells, which develop into sperm and egg. She is attempting to understand how these pluripotent stem cells go on to differentiate into various tissues and organs. Research, she says, “gets more and more exciting all the time. The use of stem cells for regenerative medicine is very promising. Indeed, it’s a long term prospect, but very exciting.” Conscious of the many ethical questions introduced by breakthroughs in reproductive technology, Prof. McLaren also has been a leader in bioethics issues. From 1982 to 1984, she was a member of the Warnock Committee, which wrote the first guidelines for the use of in vitro fertilized (IVF) donated human eggs.

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For ten years, she served as a member of the United Kingdom Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority that regulates IVF and human embryo research in the UK. She has been a member of the Nuffield Foundation’s Bioethics Council, and the European Group on Ethics that advises the European Commission on social and ethical implications of new technologies. In 2001-2002 she was a member of the United States National Academies of Sciences Panel on Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive Cloning. She continues to advise the international community on the ongoing debate on stem cells. Prof. McLaren was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1975, and from 1991 to 1996 she served as its Foreign Secretary and Vice-President. She was the first women in the Society’s 350 year history to become an officer. She has been awarded the Pioneer Award (1988) of the International Embryo Transfer Society, jointly with Donald Michie; the Frontiers in Reproduction Research Pioneer in Reproductive Research Award (1998); the UNESCO/L’Oreal Women in Science Award (Europe) (2001); the U.S. Society of Developmental Biology Award for Lifetime Scientific Achievement (2001); and the Japan Prize for Developmental Biology (2002), jointly with Andrzej K. Tarkowski. In 1993, Anne McLaren was named a Dame Commander of the British Empire. Her three children and seven grandchildren fill much of her time outside the laboratory today. The March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology has been awarded annually since 1996 to investigators whose research has profoundly advanced the science that underlies the understanding of birth defects.

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