Assisted reproductive technology has been making headline news ever since the first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in the UK in 1979.

In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) has been hotly debated in our country, leading to the enacting of the relevant legislation in 2013. A few weeks ago, the first cycles of IVF happened at Mater Dei Hospital.

Jean Calleja Agius experienced this historical moment first hand, as she was involved in the actual clinical embryology work being carried out at the IVF lab at Mater Dei, together with the foreign embryologists who came over to assist the local team.

Calleja Agius is an obstetrician and gynaecologist by profession and also currently the head of the Department of Anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Malta.

She lectures medical students, doctors and allied health professionals on various aspects of reproductive sciences, especially embryology – the study of the development of the baby, from conception to livebirth.

Her passion for embryology stems from clinical work and her earlier research on miscarriages and stillbirths, leading to a PhD at University College London and numerous publications on the role of inflammatory markers in the placenta during early pregnancy.

Calleja Agius has been working as part of the team involved in setting up and running of the ART Clinic and IVF Lab at Mater Dei Hospital. She aims to continue enhancing her professional development to be of service to infertile couples seeking help locally.

At the same time, she is continuing to train both under- and postgraduate doctors and other healthcare professionals at the University and abroad in order to disseminate more knowledge about the field of embryology and reproductive medicine.