André Van Steirteghem
The Modern Laboratory · People
The Modern Laboratory
André Van Steirteghem
A children's doctor who built a laboratory, and helped bring the first ICSI baby into the world.
From children’s wards to the laboratory. André Van Steirteghem was born in Ghent in March 1940 and grew up in Lokeren. He qualified in medicine at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) in 1969 and trained as a paediatrician. From 1970 to 1974 he divided his time between Brussels and a hospital at Lwiro in eastern Congo, caring for severely malnourished children.
A partnership. He then spent three years in research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, in the United States. Back in Brussels in 1977, he was asked to set up a hormone laboratory at the new university hospital. There he met the gynaecologist Paul Devroey, who soon asked him to help start IVF. The two went to learn from the team at Monash University in Melbourne, and in 1983 Tina, the first Brussels IVF baby, was born.
The failed SUZI embryo. At the start of the 1990s the Brussels team tried to help weak sperm by placing them just under the egg’s outer shell. Now and then the needle went too far and the sperm entered the egg. Some of those “failed” eggs fertilised and divided. The first ICSI child was born on 14 January 1992, after the transfer of a single such embryo. That July he and his colleagues reported the first pregnancies in The Lancet.
Building a field. He helped found the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, whose first meeting, in Bonn in 1985, drew 600 people. He chaired it from 1991 to 1993. He edited Human Reproduction for eight years. The Brussels team chose not to patent ICSI, so that clinics everywhere could use it, and from the start they followed the health of the children born.
He is now emeritus professor at the VUB. Between 1980 and 2025 some 60,000 children were born after fertility treatment there. In 2025 the university created the Liebaers-Van Steirteghem Award for mid-career life scientists, named for him and his colleague Inge Liebaers.
Also see: Paul Devroey, Gianpiero D. Palermo, Hubert Joris, Zsolt Peter Nagy
About the sources
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel. VUB Science prizes: the Liebaers-Van Steirteghem Award, 26 August 2025 (vub.be): born 1940; paediatrician in eastern Congo; research in the United States; return in 1977; meeting Paul Devroey; Tina 1983; the failed attempts that fertilised; ESHRE first congress Bonn 1985; editor of Human Reproduction for eight years; 60,000 children 1980 to 2025.
- Van Steirteghem A. Eicel zoekt zaadcel voor vaste relatie. Baanbrekend ivf-onderzoek aan de Vrije Universiteit Brussel (ISBN 9789464983289), sample chapters (boekhuis.nl PDF): born Ghent, March 1940; Lokeren; medical degree VUB 1969; CEMUBAC at Lwiro 1970 to 1974; NIH Bethesda 1974 to 1977; hormone (RIA) laboratory at UZ Brussel; Monash visit; decision not to patent ICSI; follow-up of children.
- Van Steirteghem A. ICSI the game changer: 30 years after the first birth. BioNews, Progress Educational Trust, 10 October 2022: first ICSI child born 14 January 1992 after transfer of a single “failed SUZI” embryo.
- ESHRE. Past Chairmen (eshre.eu): Professor A. Van Steirteghem, 1991 to 1993.
- VUB Research Portal, Andre Van Steirteghem (researchportal.vub.be): emeritus; fellowship of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 1999.
- Palermo G, Joris H, Devroey P, Van Steirteghem AC. Pregnancies after intracytoplasmic injection of single spermatozoon into an oocyte. Lancet 1992;340(8810):17–18. PubMed 1351601.
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Compiled with AI-assisted research and checked against the original sources. Not yet peer-reviewed. Corrections are warmly welcomed.
