10 Facts About Michael Abercrombie

Michael Abercrombie was a British cell biologist and embryologist.

Michael Abercrombie was one of four children of the poet Lascelles Abercrombie.

Michael Abercrombie's uncle was the famed British town planner, Patrick Abercrombie.

Michael Abercrombie moved to the Strangeways Research Laboratory at the University of Cambridge to undertake doctoral research.

Michael Abercrombie was classified as unfit for military service in the second world war and moved to University of Oxford to work on wound healing and nerve regeneration until 1943, then returned to Birmingham.

Michael Abercrombie was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1958.

Michael Abercrombie finally became director of the Strangeways Research Laboratory at Cambridge from 1970 until his death.

Michael Abercrombie notably discovered that animal cells moving through tissue culture will halt when they come into contact with another cell of the same type, with the important exception of cancer cells.

Michael Abercrombie died at home in Cambridge on 28 May 1979.

Together they had one son, Nicholas Michael Abercrombie who became a noted sociologist.