Modern science owes a great deal to the work of Professor Dame Anne McLaren, who died on 7 July, 2007 aged 80 in a car accident which also claimed the life of her ex-husband and fellow academic, Donald Michie .

Dame Anne was a leading geneticist whose research laid the foundations for human in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Her groundbreaking work led to the birth of the world’s first test-tube baby.

In a career lasting almost 60 years, Dame Anne published over 300 research papers, exploring “everything involved in getting from one generation to the next".

Her research students will fondly remember her as a caring and supportive mentor. The science world will greatly miss this esteemed luminary whose work remains of great importance to current research.

Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren was born on 26 April, 1927, the daughter of a Lord and ex-MP and great-grandaughter of an inventor.

She was awarded a scholarship to read Zoology at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. It was here that her tutor, the geneticist E B Ford, sparked her passion for genetics and evolution.

She undertook postgraduate research at University College London and became the first woman to win a Christopher Welch scholarship. She completed her doctorate in 1952, when she married fellow student Donald Michie.

The couple worked together on several important projects before divorcing in 1959. Dame Anne spent the next 15 years at the Institute of Animal Genetics in Edinburgh, where she continued researching the reproduction, growth and genetics of mice.

Her greatest achievement came in 1958, with the first successful delivery of mice that had grown as embryos outside the mother’s womb. This groundbreaking work paved the way for the world’s first test-tube baby in 1978.

In the 1960s and 70s, Dame Anne was involved in pioneering research into immuno-contraception, DNA hybridization and chimeras. From 1974, she was director of the MRC Mammalian Development Unit at UCL until her retirement in 1992.

But she remained active in the field, as principal research associate at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute. She was also a research fellow at King's College, Cambridge and Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society between 1991 and 1996.

The accident in which she died also claimed the life of her ex-husband Donald Michie with whom she was travelling. They leave behind their son and two daughters.

Dame Anne headed many important organisations including the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1993-94). In 2002, she was awarded the Japan Prize for contributions to developmental biology. She was given the DBE in 1993.

Aside from her scientific achievements, she was committed to negotiating the ethical and legal implications of genetics research. She encouraged honest discussion and believed science needed to engage the public to gain its trust.

In 1991 she became the first female Foreign Secretary at the Royal Society. She was president of the Association for Women in Science and Engineering and won the 2001 Unesco award for women in science.

Her friend and chairman of the Gurdon Institute, Jim Smith said: “Her scientific achievements speak for themselves, but we will miss her enormous energy and enthusiasm, and her unfailing support for women scientists, for whom she was a wonderful role model.”