Smirnova, IrinaIrinaSmirnovaGarcía-González, Carlos A.Carlos A.García-GonzálezGurikov, PavelPavelGurikov2023-11-232023-11-232023-10-01in: Aegerter, M., Leventis, N., Koebel, M., Steiner, S. (eds) Handbook of Aerogels (2023)https://hdl.handle.net/11420/44263At present, an interest has grown in the field of biocompatible aerogels and composite aerogel materials in life sciences, especially in biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Due to their large surface area, open pore structure, and biocompatibility, aerogels are very promising candidates for drug delivery systems. The use of inorganic, organic, and composite (hybrid) aerogels as carriers for bioactive compounds is discussed in this chapter. Both the stability and the release kinetics of the drugs can be significantly tuned by loading them into aerogels under different strategies. First attempts have been made to incorporate aerogels in pharmaceutical formulations for different administration routes, and a number of promising pharmaceutical applications can be expected in the future.enDrug carriersDrug loadingDrug releaseOral drug deliveryParticle engineeringPharmaceutical technologyPulmonary drug deliverySkin drug deliveryEngineering and Applied OperationsBook part10.1007/978-3-030-27322-4_59978-3-030-27321-7Other