# Yechezkel Barenholz

Source: https://onco.cc/people/yechezkel-barenholz/  
OnCo record `yechezkel-barenholz` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Invented the chemistry that made Doxil work, the first nanomedicine any regulator approved, which is still a standard treatment for relapsed ovarian cancer three decades later.

## Summary

Yechezkel Barenholz's Laboratory of Membrane and Liposome Research at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School devised the pegylated liposomal formulation of doxorubicin approved by the FDA in 1995 as Doxil, the first nano-drug approved anywhere. His own account in Journal of Controlled Release identifies three unrelated principles that had to work together: a polyethylene-glycol coat that keeps the liposome in circulation and away from the reticuloendothelial system, high and stable remote loading of doxorubicin driven by a transmembrane ammonium sulfate gradient that also allows release at the tumour, and a lipid bilayer held in a liquid-ordered phase by a high-melting phosphatidylcholine with cholesterol. The clinical effect is that hand-foot syndrome and mucositis replace the hair loss and heart damage of free doxorubicin. Barenholz's laboratory still publishes on liposome and PEGylation chemistry.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-25
- Tags: scientist; drug-delivery
- Role: Professor, Laboratory of Membrane and Liposome Research, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School
- Specialisms: Liposome science; Nanomedicine; Drug delivery; PEGylation

## Sources

- Laboratory of Membrane and Liposome Research, Hebrew University: https://medicine.ekmd.huji.ac.il/en/research/yechezkelb/Pages/default.aspx
- PubMed author search: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Barenholz%20Y%5BAuthor%5D%20liposome

## Connected records

- cancers: [Kaposi sarcoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/kaposi-sarcoma/), [Ovarian cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/ovarian/)
- fronts: [Chemotherapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/chemotherapy/), [Drug Discovery Platforms](https://onco.cc/fronts/drug-discovery/)
- drugs: [Doxorubicin](https://onco.cc/drugs/doxorubicin/), [Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin](https://onco.cc/drugs/pegylated-liposomal-doxorubicin/)
- institutions: [Hadassah Medical Center](https://onco.cc/institutions/hadassah/), [Hebrew University of Jerusalem](https://onco.cc/institutions/hebrew-university-of-jerusalem/)

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