Dame Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren, DBE, FRS, FRCOG (26 April 1927 – 7 July 2007)[1] was a British scientist who was a leading figure in developmental biology.

[5] She was the daughter of Sir Henry McLaren, 2nd Baron Aberconway, a former Liberal MP, and Christabel Mary Melville MacNaghten.

[5] She obtained her Doctor of Philosophy in 1952 with Peter Medawar on the genetics of rabbits, and then on neurotropic murine viruses under Kingsley Sanders.

[8] In 1958, she published a landmark Nature paper with John D. Biggers reporting the first successful development and birth of mice embryos that were first recovered from naturally fertilized females at the 8–16 cells stage, then cultured in vitro for two days until the blastocyst stage, and finally transferred back to females' uterus until birth.

[5] During this period, she had three children: The marriage ended in divorce in 1959, and McLaren moved to the Institute of Animal Genetics at the University of Edinburgh to continue her research.

The experience of raising children as a single career parent made McLaren a strong advocate for government assistance towards childcare.

The Zoological Society of London's Scientific Medal, recognized her leading role in developing techniques for blastocyst transfer into recipient mice.

She was a member of the committee established to inquire into the technologies of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and embryology, which later produced the Warnock Report.

With Donald Michie, she conducted joint research on the influence of maternal environment on lumbar vertebral counts in mice and gained expertise in the manipulation of mouse embryos.

[11] This research demonstrated the feasibility of cultivating mouse embryos in a lab setting and successfully achieving live births by implanting them into the uterus of a surrogate mother.

[11] In 1958, in collaboration with John D. Biggers, she published a seminal paper on the successful development and birth of mice cultivated in vitro.

[3] During her collaborative research with Marilyn Monk and Elizabeth Simpson on sex determination and male fertility, she identified the earliest primordial germ cells through alkaline phosphatase staining and explored the role of testes cord formation and meiosis blockage in male genital ridges.

[4][13] Anne McLaren's collaboration with Marilyn Monk and Elizabeth Simpson significantly advanced our modern understanding of sex determination and male fertility.

Her involvement in discussions and her commitment to considering the broader social impact of these advancements marked her as a prominent voice surrounding these groundbreaking technologies.

[5] McLaren is an inspiration to women in science through her distinguished career, breaking barriers and achieving numerous scientific honors.