Part two of this interview starts with Anne McLaren and her husband Donald Michie's work in Peter Medawar's department at University College, London from 1952 and at the Royal Veterinary College from 1955. Dame McLaren discusses their research there: into the lumbar vertebrae maternal effect in mice, which they finally discovered was expressed through the uterus. She also talks about the challenge of being a young mother engaged in lab work, and the support of her colleagues. Next, she describes their pioneering work on embryo transfer in mice. She acknowledges the help of John Biggers in culturing mouse embryos, and Bob Edwards' work on embryos in humans, which led to the birth of the first 'test-tube' baby in 1978. She reflects on the social and ethical implications of the new reproductive technology, and her involvement in a British Association for the Advancement of Science 'think-tank' on the subject, and later in the Warnock Committee. The discussion then moves on to Dame McLaren's research on superovulation and superpregnancy, which she began in London and continued after moving to the Institute of Animal Genetics in Edinburgh 1959. She speaks of the achievements of her boss Professor Conrad Hal Waddington. Dame McLaren outlines her research in the 1960s and early '70s, which included work on immunocontraception with Alan Beatty, on DNA hybridisation with Peter Walker, and, most succesfully, on chimeras, collaborating with Hans Grüneberg in investigating skeletal characteristics. The interview ends with Anne McLaren's appointment as director of the MRC Mammalian Development Unit at UCL, London in 1974.
Bodnant; Duncan McLaren (second Baron Aberconway); Henry Pochin; Longstow Hall; Lady Margaret Hall; zoology at Oxford University; Alister Hardy; EB Ford; JBS Haldane; Peter Medawar; Drosophila; evolution and inheritance of acquired characteristics; Kingsley Sanders; neurotropic viruses in mice; Donald Michie. Donald Michie; University College, London; Royal Veterinary College; lumbar vertebrae maternal effect; embryo transfer; John Biggers; Bob Edwards; ethics and reproductive technology; superovulation and superpregnancy; Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh; Conrad Hal Waddington; immunocontraception; DNA hybridisation; chimeras; Hans Grüneberg.
Embryology, Genetics, Allergy and immunology,
vid-140, MSVA_188
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/000023
McLaren, AnneBlythe, Max
Learning Resources
Original artefact: 1998 RADAR resource: 2017
Oxford, UK
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