Council Member

Biography

André Van Steirteghem (Editor-in-Chief, Human Reproduction) is Emeritus Professor of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB; Brussels Free University) and Honorary Consultant of the Centre for Reproductive Medicine of the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel. He is a medical graduate of the VUB where he also trained in paediatrics and clinical pathology. He worked for three years in a medical mission of the VUB in Central Africa (1970–74) and was a Visiting Scientist at the Clinical Centre of the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Maryland, USA; 1974–77). In 1979, he obtained his PhD at the VUB. Following his return to Belgium he became Laboratory and Scientific Director of the VUB Centre for Reproductive Medicine until 2005, when he became Emeritus Professor. He had several responsibilities at the VUB: Chairman of the Medical Board, Vice Rector of the University and Dean of the Medical School. For four years he was a member of the Belgian National Committee of Bio-Ethics and he is currently chairman of the Belgian Federal Commission for the Protection of the Human Embryo in Vitro. He is a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine. He has been an author, Associate Editor, Deputy Editor (2005–06) and Editor-in-Chief (2007 to present) for Human Reproduction, one of the three journals published by Oxford University Press for the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE). His extensive publication list covers most developments in the area of reproductive medicine and science of the past three decades.

Competing interests statement

André is Editor-in-Chief of Human Reproduction, a member of COPE.

Financial

• Stock ownership:  none
• Paid employment: full professor and head of university hospital department until 30 September 2005; since 1 October 2005 pension from the Belgian government and honorary consultant (unpaid) Centre for Reproductive Medicine, Universitair Ziekenhuis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
• Consultant, University Medical Centre, Utrecht
• Board membership: none
• Patent application: pending patent application on human embryonic stem cell lines
• Research grants: promoter or co-promoter or mentor until retired from grants from:
       •   University Research Council (Vrije Universiteit Brussels)
       •   Fund for Scientific Research, Flanders.
       •   European Union
       •   Unrestricted educational grant from Organon International for prospective follow-up study of ART pregnancies and children born
       •   Bertarelli Foundation
       •   Willy Gepts Foundation of the University Hospital of the Vrije Universiteit, Brussels
       •   Transfer of technology agreement with Instituto Valenciana Infertilidad
• Travel grants to participate at meetings from pharmaceutical companies (Organon, Ferring, IBSA, Cook); honorarium for speaking at symposia in Thailand (Organon)
• Gifts: new year gift from Cook, Organon, Schering

Personal

No personal competing interest regarding membership of lobbying organisations.

Professional

• Chairman (2001–06) of the College of Physicians, Reproductive Medicine of the Belgian Federal Ministry of Health
• Chairman (2006 to present) Belgian Federal Commission for the Protection of the Human Embryo in Vitro
• Editorial Board other journals. Since my appointment as Editor-in-Chief of Human Reproduction, I resigned from all Editorial Boards:
       •   Références en Gynécologie Obstétrique
       •   Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism
       •   Prenatal Diagnosis
       •   Seminars in Reproductive Medicine
       •   Gynaecologic and Obstetric Investigations

From 2002 to present.
Brussels, 2008

Posted by André van Steirteghem, COPE Council Member on September 5^th 2008