The possibility of applying drugs dermally offers fundamental advantages compared to other routes of application. Among those are the avoidance of the first pass effect which occurs after oral application of drugs or negative side effects often induced by parenteral application. The development of dermally applicable systems is therefore of great interest.

Research focuses on the design and optimisation of dermally applied drug delivery systems. Lecithin based nanoemulsions with sugar surfactants, liposomal formulations coated with different polymers, gelified microemulsions as well as polymer nanoparticles are interesting and promising vehicles in terms of skin compatibility and drug permeation.

Our objective is to acquire a better understanding of the factors controlling skin permeation of drugs. By using in vitro models and physico-chemical analysis, interactions between model drugs and formulations are investigated and their influence on topical delivery is determined. Knowledge and understanding of the relationships between vehicle, drug and skin allow for the design of new optimised drug delivery systems.