Janis Vella Szijj studied pharmacy at the University of Malta, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and graduated in 2008. Dr Vella Szijj then worked as a managing pharmacist in a community pharmacy and as a medical officer with a pharmaceutical company before obtaining an M.Sc. in pharmacy in 2010. Whilst reading for her M.Sc. Dr Vella Szijj worked as a teaching assistant, conducting regular tutorials for pharmacy students. Following this, Dr Vella Szijj worked as a research research support officer at the Department of Pharmacy, University of Malta for a number of years before becoming a resident academic lecturer at the same department.
Dr Vella Szijj obtained her Ph.D degree in 2015 from the University of Malta. Her research work related to this involved the development and validation of bioanalytical methods to determine and quantify antibiotics in the blood and tissue of patients suffering from peripheral arterial disease. She carried out work related to this at the Universita degli Studi di Catania. Her work was presented in a number of conferences including the Malta Medical School Conferences, European Association of Faculties of Pharmacy Conferences and Pharmaceutical Biopharmaceutical and Pharmaceutical Technology World Meetings, among others.
Dr Vella Szijj is involved in the teaching of bioanalysis, pharmaceutical analysis, pharmaceutical chemistry, clinical pharmacy aspects and pharmaceutical technology. She is actively involved in the running of the laboratories and coordination of practicals. Dr Vella Szijj is involved in the supervision of a number of undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Dr Vella Szijj is a registered pharmacist in Malta with the Malta Pharmacy Council and a member
of the Malta Pharmaceutical Association, International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) and
Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS).