You may not have heard of Anne McLaren, but she’s played an integral role in the development of in vitro fertilization (IVF). She was also the first scientist to clone an animal, which she did in 1996 with a sheep named Dolly. McLaren was born in 1930 and began her career as a medical researcher at the University of Cambridge in 1956. In the 1970s, McLaren became involved with research on mammalian fertilization at the Roslin Institute, where she identified key factors and processes that affected sperm-egg binding and embryo development in mammals and birds.
Understanding conception
But how does that work? Unfortunately, we can’t see into a woman’s body and see what happens during conception. It wasn’t until Anne McLaren began her scientific research that we started to understand more about conception and how it happens. In 1920, she became one of Britain’s first female graduates in zoology from Oxford University. In 1958, she started conducting research into how eggs were fertilized—and discovered something incredible: Some eggs appeared virgin even though they had previously been fertilized.
Understanding IVF
We’ve come a long way since Dr. Anne McLaren, an embryologist at the England’s University of Cambridge, developed a protocol to culture mouse embryos in vitro. Though it might not have seemed possible back then, almost four decades later thousands of babies are born every year using in vitro fertilization (IVF). In fact, as many as 1 in 6 U.S. babies are conceived with some help from IVF. While researchers didn’t know it at first, success rates for IVF depend on more than just sperm and egg; instead, they rely on multiple steps—including embryo development outside of its natural environment—that happens over several days. Without Dr.Anne McLaren.
Understanding Embryos
Before we had actual embryos to study, researchers relied on models made from glass or dead embryos. Working with these artificial models meant that scientists couldn’t always see what was going on under a microscope. In 1963, Anne McLaren changed all of that. The biologist used transparent turtle eggs in order to watch embryos develop—something she called the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in biology. Her work allowed her and other researchers to get a better understanding of how an embryo develops and has contributed greatly to our understanding of assisted reproductive technologies like IVF today.
Honoring Dr. McLaren
I was drawn to [IVF] because I loved working with infertile couples and I wanted to find a solution to their problem, Dr. Anne McLaren told Scientific American in 2003. She is best known for developing in vitro fertilization (IVF) in its modern form, where eggs are removed from a woman’s ovaries and then fertilized by sperm outside of her body. This research was used as an option for couples that have trouble conceiving; they could use IVF treatment as one possible solution to starting their family. The technique has become widely accepted and has been used by over five million women around the world.
