André C. Van Steirteghem

André C. Van Steirteghem (born 1940) is a Belgian physician, medical researcher and professor emeritus associated with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and UZ Brussel. He is best known as one of the pioneers of reproductive medicine in Belgium and for his role in the development of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), an assisted reproductive technique in which a single sperm cell is injected directly into an oocyte.

Van Steirteghem co-founded the fertility clinic at the VUB and worked with colleagues including Paul Devroey, Gianpiero D. Palermo and Hubert Joris on the clinical development of ICSI.

Career Van Steirteghem was originally trained as a paediatrician and became active in fertility research at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Van Steirteghem also held leadership roles in reproductive medicine. He served as chair of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) from 1991 to 1993. ESHRE later listed him among its honorary members in 2007.

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection Van Steirteghem is closely associated with the early clinical development of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). The first report of pregnancies after intracytoplasmic injection of a single spermatozoon into an oocyte was published in The Lancet in 1992 by Gianpiero Palermo, Hubert Joris, Paul Devroey and Van Steirteghem.

ICSI became an important treatment for severe male-factor infertility and is now widely used in assisted reproduction.

Research Van Steirteghem's research has covered gametes and preimplantation embryos, in vitro fertilisation, micromanipulation, cryobiology and preimplantation diagnosis.

Recognition In 2025, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel announced the Liebaers–Van Steirteghem Award, named after Van Steirteghem and the medical geneticist Inge Liebaers. The university described Van Steirteghem as a pioneer in fertility research and co-founder of the fertility clinic at the VUB.

Selected publications

Palermo, G.; Joris, H.; Devroey, P.; Van Steirteghem, A. C. "Pregnancies after intracytoplasmic injection of single spermatozoon into an oocyte." The Lancet. 340 (8810): 17–18. 1992. doi:10.1016/0140-6736(92)92425-F. Van Steirteghem, A. C.; Nagy, Z.; Joris, H.; Liu, J.; Staessen, C.; Smitz, J.; Wisanto, A.; Devroey, P. "High fertilization and implantation rates after intracytoplasmic sperm injection." Human Reproduction. 8 (7): 1061–1066. 1993. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.humrep.a138192. Van Steirteghem, A.; Devroey, P.; Liebaers, I. "Intracytoplasmic sperm injection." Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology. 186 (2): 199–203. 2002. doi:10.1016/S0303-7207(01)00658-X.