In 1971, Gregory Gregoriadis discovered that encasing medicines in fat droplets could help them move through the body. 50 years later, his idea was used to vaccinate the world against Covid-19.
When working with biochemist Brenda Ryman at the Royal Free Hospital of Medicine in the early 1970s, Professor Gregory Gregoriadis (1934–2026) had an idea: why not use liposomes, or tiny droplets of fat, to deliver drugs and vaccines?
Gregoriadis found that when vaccines were put into liposomes, the body had a much better antibody response. Their work soon attracted attention across the world, and this technology became the standard for delivering drugs.
It would be used to treat illnesses from cancer to diabetes, and to create hepatitis A and flu vaccines in the 1990s.
Crucially, as scientists raced to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, Gregoriadis’ idea would be used in both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The vaccines used the synthetic messenger mRNA, which is extremely fragile. To protect the vaccine, the mRNA is encased in lipid nanoparticles, which also improve the body’s immune response to Covid-19.
We were the first to suggest liposomes as vaccine carriers. You publish papers and you hope it is significant, but I never imagined it would come to this point and be used in a pandemic like this.
Born in Athens in 1934, Gregoriadis lived through the Nazi occupation of Greece. He studied at the University of Athens and in the late 1960s, achieved an MSc and PhD at McGill University, Canada. After two years as a research fellow in New York, he moved to the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London, which became part of UCL in 1998.
From 1990 to 2001, Gregoriadis worked as Professor and Head of the Centre for Drug Delivery Research at the UCL School of Pharmacy.
In 1997, he founded Lipoxen (now Xenetic Biosciences), a spin-off from the UCL School of Pharmacy. He served as its Director of Research until 2015.
I’m proud that the vaccine technology being used in the global fight against coronavirus has its origins in the work we first carried out in London 50 years ago.
Gregoriadis and his colleagues were the first to suggest using liposomes to carry vaccines. 50 years on, his research continues to change lives.
Sources and explore further
- Professor Gregory Gregoriadis, UCL Life Sciences (2026).
- How a London scientist laid the foundations for the Covid vaccine 50 years ago, The Independent (2021).
- Gregory Gregoriadis, scientist whose 1970s work on liposomes paved the way for Covid-19 vaccines, The Telegraph (2026).
