Abercrombie went to school at Liverpool College and then Leeds Grammar School. In 1931 he entered Queen's College, University of Oxford, to study Zoology under Professor Gavin de Beer, supported by a Hastings scholarship. He was awarded a first class B. Sc. degree in 1934.
He moved to the Strangeways Research Laboratory at the University of Cambridge to undertake doctoral research.[3] In 1938 was employed at University of Birmingham as a lecturer, while also holding a research fellowship at Queen's College, University of Oxford. At Birmingham he met another lecturer, Minnie Johnson, whom he married on 17 July 1939. He 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.
In 1947 he and his wife moved to the anatomy and zoology departments at University College London.[4] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1958. He finally became director of the Strangeways Research Laboratory at Cambridge from 1970 until his death. Here Abercrombie studied cell population growth and behaviour.
He 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. This discovery led to new interest and research into the dynamics and growth of cancer cells.
He was also involved in popularising science. Particularly successful projects were the co-authored Penguin Dictionary of Biology in 1951 (with co-author C. J. Hickman and others, reaching 11th edition in 2004) and the Penguin New Biology series (1945 - 1960), co-edited with his wife (writing as M. L. Johnson), and from 1953 with botanist Gordon Elliott Fogg. They also wrote articles for New Biology.[4]
Abercrombie, M. and Ambrose, E.J. (1958). Interference microscope studies of cell contacts in tissue culture. Exp. Cell Res. 15: 322–345.
Abercrombie, M. and Heaysman, J.E.M. (1953). Observations on the social behaviour of cells in tissue culture. I. Speed of movement of chick heart fibroblasts in relation to their mutual contacts. Exp. Cell Res. 5: 111–131.
Abercrombie, M. and Heaysman, J.E.M. (1954a). Observations on the social behaviour of cells in tissue culture. II. ‘Monolayering’ of fibroblasts. Exp. Cell Res. 6: 293–306.
Abercrombie is also known for editing and co-founding the Penguin New Biology textbook. He was one of the founders and first editor (1953–62) of Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology (renamed Development in 1987).
