The course will discuss the most important contemporary strategies and methods for controlled topical delivery of drugs in clinical practice. The course will focus on the use of advanced devices and biomaterials to achieve the aim of supplying drugs in adequate quantities to target tissues, during an extended time interval. Examples will be abstracted from oncology (e.g., local delivery of cytostatic and/or angiogenic agents to solid tumors), ophthalmology (e.g., delivery of drugs to anterior and posterior parts of the eye), pulmonary drug delivery, etc. Methods to achieve long-duration contraception will be discussed as well. Evidently, emphasis will be put on technical/engineering aspects, such as the use micro-pump technologies, use of synthetic hydrogel biomaterials in systems for controlled local drug delivery, use of drug-releasing micro- and nanoparticles, transdermal drug delivery, nasal/pulmonary drug delivery, and drug delivery from implanted devices, such as endovascular stents, subcutaneous contraceptive devices, and injected microparticles carrying and locally releasing antineoplastic cytostatic drugs. Master students will be expected to study, in depth, 5-6 recent scientific papers in the field of controlled drug delivery and to present the content of these works in a mini-seminar.